NATO allies fail to deliver against Taliban threat

WASHINGTON, April 15 (UPI) -- The marked deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan in the face of the resurgent Taliban over the past year has produced a needed reassessment of the effort that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization needs to expend in order to stabilize that country.

This reassessment is premised on the notion that a safe haven for radicals in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan is dangerous, not just for these two countries but for the security and stability of the entire Central and South Asian regions. NATO policymakers also fear that the harboring of radicals in a Taliban-dominated Afghanistan may create future dangers for the security of Western countries -- and that would be the member nations of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization, front and center.

This analysis has, in fact, already been done. And there is no serious disagreement about the diagnosis.

The U.S. government has admitted that mistakes were made and that allowing Afghanistan to fester in large measure contributed to the regrouping of the Taliban and their assorted allies. While further analysis and a more detailed plan will follow, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates under the direction of President Barack Obama has already increased the number of U.S. troops operating in Afghanistan. In all, an additional 21,000 American soldiers are going to be sent there to augment the 38,000 already deployed in that country.

Therefore, there will be more resources and a deeper engagement in the complicated effort of building a viable economy in Afghanistan. In all this, the operation continues to be a NATO mission.

However, what have we heard from America's allies in the 28-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization? Well, not much. At least not much in terms of concrete fresh commitments to the operation.

President Obama's appeal earlier this month in Strasbourg, France, for increased military commitments to Afghanistan from NATO's European member states produced only a single pledge of perhaps 1,000 more troops and military trainers from Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain. The other 25 European member nations of NATO, with a combined population of more than 400 million, offered virtually nothing. And this means that the U.S. urgency about Afghanistan is not shared among the allies.

This fiasco reveals the underlying problem of shared purpose and vision that NATO faces at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. The alliance was and is supposedly based on common values and a shared worldview, which would include a shared understanding of what constitutes a threat. But that shared view is sadly lacking today across the many member states of the sprawling alliance.

--

Part 5: How NATO has become a defensive alliance without any conception of war

--

(Paolo Liebl von Schirach is the editor of SchirachReport.com, a regular contributor to Swiss radio and an international economic-development expert.)

--

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)