OTAN - NATO
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NATO Nukes in Europe
Sommet de Chicago 2012 - OTAN - NATO
B61 LEP: Increasing NATO Nuclear Capability and Precision Low-Yield Strikes » FAS Strategic Security Blog
By Hans M. Kristensen A modified U.S. nuclear bomb currently under design will have improved military capabilities compared with older weapons and increase the targeting capability of NATO’s nuclear arsenal. The B61-12, the product of a planned 30-year life extension and consolidation of four existing versions of the B61 into one, will be equipped with a new guidance system to increase its accuracy. As a result, if funded by Congress, the U.S. non-strategic nuclear bombs currently deployed in five European countries will return to Europe as a life-extended version in 2018 with a significantly enhanced capability to knock out military targets.
Le Figaro - International : Otan : la dernière flèche de Robert Gates
C'est ce qui s'appelle sortir sur un éclat. Chef du Pentagone au bord de la retraite et figure du circuit washingtonien depuis les années 1980, Robert Gates règle ses comptes avec les Européens qu'il accuse collectivement de conduire l'Otan «vers l'insignifiance militaire», faute de moyens et de volonté politique. «Si l'actuel déclin des capacités militaires européennes n'est pas stoppé voire renversé, les futurs dirigeants américains - ceux qui n'ont pas connu comme moi l'enseignement de la guerre froide - risquent tout simplement de conclure que le retour ne mérite pas l'investissement des États-Unis dans l'Otan», a lancé le secrétaire à la Défense dans un discours-testament opportunément livré à Bruxelles. Impatience américaine Robert Gates, 67 ans, n'en est pas à son premier sermon contre le Vieux Continent, régulièrement accusé de s'abriter sous le parapluie sécuritaire américain sans en supporter le coût.
Francois Lenoir/Reuters Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates criticized NATO members in Brussels on Friday, saying that they were “apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources” to support the alliance. In his final policy speech before he steps down, Mr. Gates issued a dire and unusually direct warning that the United States, the traditional leader and patron of the alliance, was exhausted by a decade of war and its own mounting budget deficits and simply might not see NATO as worth supporting any longer.
Blunt Warning From Gates Reveals NATO Strains - NYTimes.com
"If the United States did not have large stockpiles of ammunition, a senior NATO official said, the NATO campaign would already have come to a halt. The Americans are selling the ammunition, but it was the American military budget that paid for its manufacture and stockpiling. " LOL by Jun 11
"NATO’s shortcomings have long been the subject of black humor in Afghanistan, where American military officers sometimes refer to the official NATO command — called the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF — as “I Saw Americans Fighting.” In recent months, the aggravation with NATO in Afghanistan has intensified because of Libya. " ISAF :=) by Jun 11
10 NATO Countries Want More Transparency for Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons » FAS Strategic Security Blog
By Hans M. Kristensen Four NATO countries supported by six others have proposed a series of steps that NATO and Russia should take to increase transparency of U.S. and Russian non-strategic nuclear weapons. The steps are included in a so-called “ non-paper ” that Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland jointly submitted at the NATO Foreign Affairs Minister meeting in Berlin on 14 April. Use the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) as the primary framework for transparency and confidence-building efforts concerning tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.
A strategist abroad: NATO meets some bloggers « Thinking Strategically
The figure used by the NATO official was 70%; the organisation had found that it was mentioned by social media more than on mainstream news sites, and blogs made up 70% of those references. I believe it was that figure which spurred NATO into engaging with the blogosphere, and they hosted a conference last week with prominent bloggers from Germany and the United Kingdom. We talked to fairly senior people and the discussions were frank, as everything was off the record. This meant no recording, of course, and few notes, so it would be difficult to recount the day in full. I thought I’d list my highlights, however. We had five seminars with different officials and Afghanistan dominated discussion in most.Global Security Newswire - Russia, NATO Remain at Odds Over Missile Shield
Russian and NATO military officials failed to make headway in a meeting yesterday in resolving their differing views on the establishment of a joint European missile shield, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN , Jan. 25). While the alliance has called for two separate but coordinated entities that would exchange data on missile threats, Moscow favors a combined "sectoral" program in which each side would have responsibility for eliminating incoming missiles in a specific physical area. Russian envoy Dmitry Rogozin told journalists that NATO's aspirations for the missile defense system "could not be called cooperation. It's not even a marriage of convenience. It's like living separately in different apartments."
Global Security Newswire - Russia Wants Shared Missile Defense System With NATO
Russia's ambassador to NATO yesterday voiced his approval with initial missile defense talks and said the two former Cold War foes could work together on a unified European shield, Interfax reported (see GSN , Dec. 7). "I am satisfied with the way the Russian delegation has performed, I am satisfied with its proactive position at the first meeting with our NATO partners," Russian envoy Dmitry Rogozin said following the experts' meeting. "Now the ball is in NATO's court."
Stephan Fruehling writes: The Reader Riposte on NATO is mistaken with regards to the Article V guarantee, which does not apply to French (or, for that matter, US) territories in the Pacific. Article 5 of the Washington Treaty refers to attacks 'in Europe or North America', which Article 6 more precisely defines as the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America, or the Islands under the jurisdiction of any of the Parties in the North Atlantic area north of the Tropic of Cancer. The Argentine attack on the Falklands, for example, did not trigger Article 5, nor would a Pacific contingency. Any ally could, however, request discussions under Article 4 'whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened'.
Reader riposte: More on NATO in Asia
Lisbon summit - Sommet de Lisbonne 2010
Les Etats-Unis se retirent, les Européens doivent prendre leur sécurité en main, dit Stubb | Bruxelles2
A deux pas du sommet de l’OTAN, il fallait oser. Alexander Stubb a donc choisi de lancer un avertissement aux Européens. « Je ne crois pas que la présence américaine (en Europe) est permanente » explique-t-il dans une interview au Financial Times . Il faut donc se préparer à un retrait américain en Europe. « Nous avons besoin de nous développer. C’est la réalité » explique-t-il « Nous ne pouvons plus opérer dans le domaine de la sécurité comme 27 entités différentes.
Le faux-pas tchèque à propos de l'offensive israélienne...
Il ne s'agit pas d'amateurisme, ou d'un faux pas. Sur un sujet aussi clivant en Europe que les relations entre Palestiniens et Israëliens, au moment où une offensive terrestre israelienne est en cours et que les morts se comptent par centaines, quand le Premier ministre de l'Etat qui assure la présidence de l'Union européenne, par porte-parole interposé, assène que l'opération israêlienne sur Gaza est une opération "défensive" (1), il commet une sérieuse erreur. Chaque pays européen a une vision bien précise du conflit israélo-palestinien. Et la République tchèque a, en la matière, liberté d'affirmer ses options politiques (même si la réalité sur le terrain peut sembler différente). Mais le faire au nom de l'UE est une triple erreur : de principe, de stratégie, de goût.
Les Roumains hésitent (un peu) sur leur futur avion, F16 ou Grip
La Roumanie va devoir remplacer ses bons vieux Mig 21, dont nous avons pu voir un exemplaire lors du dernier défilé du 14 juillet . Les 48 avions de fabrication soviétique ont commencé à être retirés du service. Et le gouvernement a mis 4,5 milliards d'euros sur la table pour les remplacer.A first draft of Nato 's new strategic concep t was distributed to member state ambassadors in Brussels this week, for consideration before defence and foreign ministers meet on October 14, and the Lisbon summit a month later. So far, there has been no sign that the draft has anything much to say on rethinking Nato's nuclear stance, and in particular on what to do with the estimated 200 remaining US tactical nuclear weapons , B61 gravity bombs , scattered around European air bases. The Nato experts group , chaired by Madeleine Albright, took the view that the alliance should hold on to them, despite their military obsolescence, to trade with Russia. In April, Hillary Clinton also batted aside calls from Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway and Luxembourg to rethink the continued deployment of B61s, and she was backed by the Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen . It now looks like a push-back is underway by the reformers to put the issue on the table again at Lisbon.
Get rid of tactical nuclear weapons, Nato leaders told | World news | guardian.co.uk
Sicherheitspolizei Estland For years, from his senior position in Estonia's Defense Ministry, Herman Simm leaked highly sensitive NATO intelligence and the names of Western spies to Russia's foreign intelligence service. In a classified damage analysis, NATO concludes that the former KGB colonel was one of the "most damaging" spies in the history of the alliance.
Betrayer and Betrayed: New Documents Reveal Truth on NATO's 'Most Damaging' Spy - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
As leaders gather to mark NATO's 60th anniversary on the French-German border April 3 and 4, they will also celebrate the full return of one of the alliance's founding members. Nearly half a century after France left NATO's military command, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced this year it was rejoining. Observers predict France's return will reinvigorate efforts to reform the transatlantic organization. France is already a major troop contributor and participant in NATO, sometimes commanding key operations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. So what does France's return to NATO's military command structure make? A lot, says Daniel Korski, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London.
VOA News - NATO Marks Its Anniversary To Welcome France Back To
L’ IRIS - Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques, centre de recherche en relations internationales, a créé son site d’informations "affaires-strategiques.info".