“The Future Role of NATO in strengthening Cross Continental Cooperation”

Berlin, ICD House; October 18th, 2013
Frattini emphasized that today we face a globalization of threats and this requires us to develop global security strategies. He advocated multilateral cooperation and the sharing of financial burden between European and American allies. He stressed that money spent on preventing threats is not a waste but an investment in the good of citizens. He stressed the use of resources should be pooled and that the EU should not be seen as a soft power in comparison to the US.

Frattini mentioned the common initiative between NATO forces and the operations in Libya such as the refueling of military airplanes in Italy. He mentioned the problems caused by lack of coordination between allied forces in Afghanistan leading to unsuitable planes being deployed by Italian forces instead of more helicopters and smaller more rapid deployable forces. The pooling of resources and the formation of a common European defense policy would avoid differing standards of equipment which weaken the operability of a military alliance. He also stressed a common defense strategy is essential to the European common market and would encourage better cooperation between the private and industrial sectors. He advocated that defense and security should be political decisions and not be left to bureaucrats who are constantly looking for opportunities to cut public spending.

In addition, he suggested we need another non government body to certify that states have the capacity to commit themselves military once they have given the pledge to support an alliance in military action. The main message was that nations face common globalized threats such as from cyberspace, energy supply routes and unstable political regions. Therefore this calls for a globalized approach to crises between nations and regions.