Manlio Dinucci (the poster, 2 February 2021)
NATO is looking to the future. For this reason, the Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has summoned, The 4 February by videoconference, students and young leaders of the Alliance countries to propose "new ideas for NATO 2030".
The initiative is part of the growing involvement of universities and schools, also with a competition on the subject: “What will be the greatest threats to peace and security in the 2030 and how NATO will have to adapt to counter them?».
To carry out the theme, the young people already have the textbook: «NATO 2030 / United for a New Era», the report presented by the group of ten experts appointed by the Secretary General[1]. Among these is Marta Dassù who, after having been foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister D'Alema during the NATO war on Yugoslavia, has held important positions in successive governments and was also appointed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to the board of Finmeccanica (today Leonardo), the largest Italian war industry.
What is the "new era" that the group of experts envisages?
After defining NATO as "the most successful alliance in history", that "put an end to two wars" (those against Yugoslavia and Libya which instead it was NATO that unleashed), the report paints a picture of a world characterized by "authoritarian states seeking to expand their power and influence", posing to the NATO Allies "a systemic challenge in all security and economy fields".
reversing the facts, the report argues that, while NATO has amicably extended its hand to Russia, this one responded with "aggression in the Euro-Atlantic area" and, violating agreements, it "brought about the end of the Treaty on Intermediate Nuclear Forces".
The Russia, underline the ten experts, is "the main threat facing NATO in this decade". At the same time - they argue - NATO is facing growing "security challenges posed by China", whose economic activities and technologies may have "an impact on collective defense and military preparedness in the area of responsibility of the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe" (who is always a US general appointed by the President of the United States).
After raising the alarm on these and other "threats", that would also come from the South of the world, the report of the ten experts recommends "cementing the centrality of the transatlantic link", that is, the link between Europe and the United States in the alliance under US command. At the same time, it recommends "strengthening the political role of NATO", stressing that "the Allies must strengthen the North Atlantic Council", the main political body of the Alliance that meets at the level of the defense and foreign ministers and that of the heads of state and government.
Since the North Atlantic Council, according to NATO rules, takes its decisions not by majority but always "unanimously and by mutual agreement", that is, in agreement with what was decided in Washington, the further strengthening of the North Atlantic Council means a further weakening of the European parliaments, in particular of the Italian one, already deprived of real decision-making powers on foreign and military policy.
In this framework, the report proposes to strengthen NATO forces in particular on the eastern flank, providing them with "adequate nuclear military capabilities", adapted to the situation created with the end of the Treaty on Intermediate Nuclear Forces (torn apart by the US).
In other words, the ten experts ask the US to speed up the time to deploy in Europe not only the new B61-12 nuclear bombs, but also new medium-range nuclear missiles similar to the Euromissiles of the 1980s. They ask to "continue and revitalize nuclear sharing agreements", which allow formally non-nuclear countries, like Italy, to prepare for the use of nuclear weapons under US command. The ten experts remember, finally, that it is essential that all allies keep their commitment, taken in 2014, to increase by 2024 its military spending at least to 2% of GDP, which means for Italy to bring it from 26 A 36 billions of euros per year.
This is the price to pay to enjoy what the report calls "the benefits of being under the NATO umbrella".
(the poster, 2 February 2021)