Running head: PROBLEMS UNERMINE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY

The Problems Undermine the Unity, Effectiveness, and Credibility of

the North Atlantic Treaty

Chhay MengLeng

American University of Phnom Penh

Running head: PROBLEMS UNERMINE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY

Chhay MengLeng

Professor Chanika Mitchell

Peace and Conflict Studies

Submitted on Dec 17, 2019

Abstract

After the collapsed of the Soviet Union, there is a surmountable concern regarding the

existence of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), despite NATO remit to include

many roles for protecting the security of its member states from security threats posed by the

post-cold war period. NATO's unity, effectiveness, and credibility are the most significant

factors for preserving liberal world order in the face of the new geopolitical environment.

This paper will try to examine the causes that undermine NATO's unity, effectiveness, and

credibility to execute military actions not only for the protection of its member states but also

to protect global peace and security. This paper uses a qualitative analysis method to analyze

the collection of secondary. This paper found out that there are five mains factors that

undermine the unity, effectiveness, and credibility of NATO, namely- distribution of burdens

on defense spending, speed of decision-making, enlargement issues, readiness and

interoperability of forces, and adaptability to the new political environment. At the end of this

paper, the policy solutions will be addressed with how to implement and enforce those

solutions.

Keywords: Effectiveness, Credibility, Cold War, Liberal world order, North

Atlantic Treaty (Organization), Unity

Running head: PROBLEMS UNERMINE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY

Historical Overview

After WWII ended in 1945, the cold war broke out. Cold War was a product of the

expansion of Soviet communists into Eastern Europe, posted security threats to Western

Hemisphere, mainly to Western European countries and the United States (US). After the

war, Western countries faced mass destruction and economic downturns. The US, the allies to

Western countries therein, took its responsibility to protect its allies and liberal world order

by developing “containment strategy” to curb the expansion of the Soviet Union and the

communist in Asia and the Middle East. (Ogunnoiki & Ekpo, 2019)

The US, Canada, and ten Western Countries, namely- Belgium, Denmark, France,

Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and, the UK, initiated a collective

defense act called North Atlantic Treaty, also known as Washington Treaty. The treaty also

brought birth to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as an alliance movement to

“keep the Soviet Union out, American in, and the Germans down” (The Economist, 2019;

Weiss, 2019). The NATO also initiated to deter the Soviet Union for its expansionist

behavior remarkable by its Nuclear Missile Testing in August 1949. To balancing power, the

Soviet Union also launched a pact called Warsaw pact as a mutual defense alliance against

NATO. (History, 2010)

In article 10, NATO inked an "Open-Door Policy" to expand its sphere of influence

and also a mean to prevent the neighboring countries of the Soviet Union from falling into

communists. Over the years, many countries joined NATO, namely- Greece and Turkey

(1952), West Germany (1955), Spain (1982), Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary (1999),

Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and, Slovenia (2004), Albania and

Croatia (2009) and, Montenegro (2017) (International Democratic Watch, 2012; Aljazeera,

2019).
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In 1991, the cold war was ended marked by the collapse of the Berlin Wall, also

symbolized for the fall of the Soviet Union (History, 2010). NATO earned a remarkable

success during the cold war facing harsh competitions and confrontations against the Soviet

Union through indirect fighting. Until 1994, NATO created the Partnership for Peace (PfP)

program to promote the cooperation between NATO and non-member states in Western

Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central

Asia. The partnership countries are Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malta, Moldova, North

Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and,

Uzbekistan. (International Democratic Watch, 2012)

At present, NATO has 29 members. In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the

Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,

Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The member who joined the

aftermath are Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic,

Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and

Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), and Montenegro (2017). (NATO, 2019a)

The Structure of Organization

The NATO has made up of three organs: a) the North Atlantic Council-the supreme

decision-making of the Alliance b) the Secretariat- the administrative body of the Alliance,

and c) Military Command Structure, consisted of two main bodies such as-Allied Command

Operation (ACO) which is responsible for executing of the military operations and Allied

Command Transformation (ACT) which is responsible for developing the military capability.

(NATO, 2018)
Running head: PROBLEMS UNERMINE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY

Introduction

NATO’s most notable success was to defeat the Soviet Union during the Cold War

period. The roles of NATO become questionable, concerning its unity. NATO adapted to the

new political sphere by remitting to include a wide range of security assurance, such as:

“conflict management in Southeastern Europe and North Africa, anti-piracy operations at the

Gulf of Aden, counterterrorism operations in South Asia and the Middle East, and collective

defense of Eastern Europe from Russia’s aggression” (Ogunnoiki & Ekpo, 2019). As a

guarantor of the liberal world order, it is crucial to understand the factors that undermine its

unity and its credibility to act in the best interests of its member states. The studies could add

value to NATO, as well as contributing to future global peace and security. This paper,

therefore, will try to diagnose the inherent problems of NATO as a military alliance,

concerning its unity, effectiveness, and credibility to maintain the liberal world order using

descriptive analysis of secondary data collection.

Problems

1. Distribution Burden of Funding

One of the biggest concerns of NATO is the inadequate and unjust distribution burden

of funding. According to article 5 of the treaty, it clearly said all member states of NATO

were supposed to contribute 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense (NATO,

2019b). In 2017, however, there are only 6 out of 29 member states met the requirement.

Those country are US (3.6%), Greece (2.3%), UK (2.1%), Estonia (2.1%), Romania (2%) and

Poland (2%) (Monov, 2019). Remarkably, the US is the largest contributor by devoting 3.6%

of its GDP to the organization. The Americans saw this as unfair because the wealthy

European nations have enjoyed peace, security, and economic prosperity for 70 years at the

expense of American taxpayers.

Running head: PROBLEMS UNERMINE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY

The former president of the US, Bara Obama, used political rhetoric featuring

criticism on Western Allies as "the free riders" (Ogunnoiki & Ekpo, 2019). The current

president Donald Trump views NATO indifferently from the North Atlantic Free Trade

Agreement (NAFTA). He regarded NATO as none significant for American foreign policy,

and it only continues to hurt the American economy. Trump believed that the spending is

only meant to allow the European Union (EU) to surpass that of the US, and to pursue

strategies that would undermine the US's interest. For instance, the EU firmly strengthens the

Eurozone, which bails out to regulate European member nations getting rid of using other

types of currency, particularly the US dollar, as a mean to foster its own economic stability

(European Commission, 2019). Such an inadequate and unjust distribution burden of funds

undermines NATO's unity because it affects the effectiveness and solidarity to the use of

forces.

2. Speed of Decision-making

The second-largest concern of NATO is the speed of decision-making. To authorize

to use force, NATO has to consult on political dynamics and legal regulations beforehand; in

some cases, it has to wait for the result of long proletarian works of individual member states.

The lack of immediate use of military actions provides opportunities for enemies to leverage

their position in the conflict, allowing them to achieve their goals and undermine the security

of member states. The delayed decision-making is not only hinder NATO in taking

"appropriate and timely actions" (Elisabeth, 2018) but also cause the erosion of trust and

credibility in maintaining security and stability of member states.

The first NATO-led operation in 1992 and culminating in Kosovo engagement in

1999 is the best example of how decision-making hindered the credibility of NATO's

operation. The Alliance's strategic leadership needed an immediate response from the
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individual's member states, uniting a single operational plan to fight a war outside member

countries. The plans were delayed due to prolonged internal decision making of 16 member

states, each of which had to prioritize the internal political rivalries and consider the relations

with the party involved in the conflict, before giving the response to NATO. Until NATO's

image was affected by Media presence. Later, each member states were forced by NATO to

conduct the operational plans. (Benecke, 2007)

3. Enlargement Issues

The third problems are the lack of effects on Russia due to its Open-Door Policy

(Monov, 2019; Ogunnoiki & Ekpo, 2019). The rationale of the Open-Door Policy is to

expanse NATO’s sphere of influence and reduce that of Russia. However, accepting new

members that are not willing to contribute much to NATO became a surmountable concern as

it increases the burden on leading member of the NATO, particularly for the US.

Remarkably, US Senator Rand Paul claims, “there is no national security interest that an

alliance with Montenegro will advance. If we invite Montenegro into NATO, it will be a one-

way street, with the United States committing to defend yet another country, and you, the

taxpayer, being stuck with the bill.” (Rand, 2018)

By the way, without taking a substantial review on the political agenda of new

members post concerns for the sense of trust and the erosion of the core values between

NATO’s member states, thereby undermine its unity and integrity. For instance, Turkey

purchased the defense systems from Russia despite the opposition from the US (BBC, 2019).

Turkey’s actions convey the fragmentation of member states’ trust in NATO’s defense

systems, allowing Russia to underestimate the capability of NATO, which could cause war.

Such actions also indicate the willingness to alienate the defense relationships from

Washington and NATO’s member states, for strengthening strategic relationship with
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Moscow. (Azajeera, 2019, Smith, 2019) This action is contradictory to its founding principle

that said: “NATO was created to balance the power of Russia” (NATO, 2019b).

4. Readiness and Interoperability of Forces

The fourth problem that inherently existed with NATO’s alliance is the lack of

readiness and interoperability of forces. Such limitations undermine the credibility of NATO

to win over its adversaries. For example, it takes one month for the UK to position a Battalion

and approximately takes an additional 30 to 90 days to place a Brigade (Monov, 2019).

Regarding the interoperability of forces, German received harsh criticism on its readiness and

equipment. According to the Washington-based Atlantic Council, German has only 4 out of

125 Eurofighter jets capable of fighting, none operational submarines, and a limited quantity

of tanks and armored personnel carriers. (John, 2018)

NATO’s interoperability is limited in several areas such as- “problems with

command and control; differences in operational planning and mission execution; difficulties

in exchange of classified information; problems with identification of forces; and growing”

(Hura et al., n.d; Monov, 2019, p.4). Such limitations existed due to the non-parallel of

technological and technical development on defense of member states. Each member states

have a different level of technological advancement on defense, military traditions, training,

and the practice of war. Both issues of readiness and interoperability of forces undermine

NATO to actively engaged in security competition and protection member states from

enemies.

5. Adaptability to Current Environment

NATO does not adapt quick enough to the new political environment, the rising of

China, a new communist state of the 21st century. In 2011, China's economy overtook that of
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Japan as the second-largest economy following by the US. The US, though, lose China in

terms of the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). (Ogunnoiki, 2018) The economic prediction

shows that China's economy might surpass the US's by 2025-2030. Currently, Xi Jinping

initiated a major silk road that aims at fostering global connectivity called "One Belt One

Road Initiative (OBOR)" (Jinchen, 2016). The expansion of OBOR in the form of Chinese

foreign direct investment is worrisome for many European nations, and post future security

threats for NATO member countries. The US, a liberal world leader, has only pursued soft

power balance with China through Trade War (Financial Times, 2019). Yet, the concern has

not addressed under the framework of NATO, despite China become a real security concern

for today's liberal world order.

Policy Recommendations and Implementations

NATO has achieved immense success for about 70 years. However, its unity

effectiveness, and credibility aftermath of the Cold War are gradually declined due to the

above problems that inherently existed in the treaty per se. These solutions will help to foster

the unity, effectiveness, and credibility of NATO in the pursuit of the best interest of all

member states, and strengthen NATO’s stance in maintaining liberal world order in the new

sphere of the geopolitical environment:

1. The North Atlantic Council must enforce the article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty by

calling upon member states to contribute 2% of their GDP to NATO, or otherwise, the

council must take a reconsideration on the membership status of member states that

failed to commit for such requirement

2. NATO must give the rights to Allied Command Operations to authorize the use of

force when member states are under the attack without having to consult with legal
Running head: PROBLEMS UNERMINE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY

regulations of member states. This policy is also meant to surrender the sovereignty of

the member states for NATO when facing real security threats to timely intervene

3. The North Atlantic Council must limit membership only for countries that are willing

to promote the democratic values regardless the consideration on former political

status and terminate the membership status for countries that promote strategic

relations with the communist states to maintain trust and core value of the treaty

4. The North Atlantic Council must reallocate 30% percent of contribution funds for

military training and developments to Allied Command Transformation (ACT), 10%

of which devote to research and development (R&D) for technological development

on defense

To put the solutions into practice, the three central bodies of NATO-North Atlantic

Council, the Secretariat, the Military Command Allied must be in charge of implementing the

policies as recommended.

Monitoring and Evaluations

The Secretariat must be in charge of conducting an assessment on each NATO’s

mission to address the unity, effectiveness and credibility of NATO. In case the issues were

found, respective institutions must take immediate action to adjust problems appropriately

and timely. Additionally, the Secretariat must also in charge of evaluating the

implementations of all policies and reports to the North Atlantic Council to ensure the unity,

effectiveness, and credibility of NATO. The meeting between the representative of member

states must be made twice a year to discuss evaluations and figure out forward grand

strategies that would make NATO adaptable to current global security trends.
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