Emerging NATO

Just as the U.S. military is reconsidering its goal of being prepared to fight wars on two fronts simultaneously, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should consider whether terrorism and small-scale despotism now pose larger threats to the regions it protects.

As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright this week meets in Paris with the warring sides of Kosovo and Maine soldiers head for the Persian Gulf to enforce the Iraqi no-fly zone, this is a good time for this state’s congressional delegation to press for a NATO more in keeping with the dangers it is likely to encounter.

Defense Secretary William Cohen recently urged NATO to take up just such a reassessment. Speaking in Munich recently, Secretary Cohen warned allies about new threats, such as biological attacks, that require NATO to be “mobile enough to project forces as rapidly as possible.” A NATO designed not to thwart a Cold War empire but a tyrant’s army still is vital to security, as is seen in Kosovo, where Serbian attacks threaten to draw in Albania, Macedonia and, potentially, Greece.

Writing last week in the Washinton Post, David Plesch, director of the British American Security Information Council, a research organization, made a case for a NATO-backed “intervention force,” which would include “both a permanent core of workers and the capability to on larger numbers as needed. Operations would vary from election monitoring to disaster relief to peacekeeping.”

Asking for a band of superheroes to fit into the confines of the accepted chennels of international diplomacy is asking a lot. But the points both Secretary Cohen and Mr. Plesch make about pushing NATO to evolve into a military force that matches the challenges of the world are worth making. The alternative is what the Clinton administration is now pursing: 4,000 U.S. troops as part of a total 28,000 NATO force to be deployed months after the massacres there and potential regional destabilization have been established.

NATO’s role should remain military, but the emerging need, particularly in the former Yugoslavia, is for less of a Soviet slayer and more an quick-footed peacekeeper.