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The National Interest
Reforging the Atlantic Alliance
by Philip H. Gordon
. . . NATO can make important military contributions even in operations where the Alliance as such is not involved. This was the case, for example, during the Gulf War and in parts of the operation in and around Afghanistan. NATO was not formally involved in either case, but in both cases Allied forces, bases and cooperation among NATO militaries were critical. In the Afghan campaign, most NATO allies were excluded from the initial operations for understandable reasons, but have become more involved over time. This involvement has included combat and special forces missions undertaken by British, Canadian and German soldiers conducting cave-clearing missions in the Afghan mountains; British and French reconnaissance, air-defense, in-air refueling and combat aircraft missions; the deployment of a French carrier-led naval task force alongside American ships patrolling the Indian Ocean; "backfilling" by NATO nations of U.S. military missions in the Balkans and even in the United States (where NATO Airborne Warning and Control Systems were deployed to protect American airspace); and the use of European NATO bases for staging operations during the Afghan campaign.
All of these tasks were facilitated by the existence of common NATO operational doctrines (for example, so that French reconnaissance officers know what kinds of information U.S. pilots need), agreed equipment standards (so that Turkish refueling nozzles fit into U.S. planes), routine multinational exercises (so that allied forces are in the habit of working together and know what problems to expect), and interoperable secure communications (so that various nations' forces can share real-time intelligence and data during an operation). When it came time to organize an international security force for Afghanistan to provide stability once victory was won, European NATO allies provided the vast majority of the forces (first under British, now Turkish, command). By summer 2002 nearly half of the 13,000 foreign troops there came from NATO allies other than the United States. In the long run, NATO itself may prove to be the best option for the maintenance of a long-term, Western-led security force in Afghanistan.
In short, while the war on terrorism does indeed suggest that NATO is no longer the central warfighting institution it was during the Cold War, it would be shortsighted to conclude that its mission is over. As a military machine designed to protect Alliance borders from an external ground attack, the Alliance may indeed be "dead" or dying; that is the benign consequence of its success. But as a community of democracies with common values and interests, and a community that is determined to maintain the political relationships and military tools to protect those interests, it is most certainly worth preserving. Surely, if it may be granted that the United States is wise to seek allies, there is no imaginable substitute for the capacities, military and otherwise, that America's NATO allies can provide. . . .