European Student Think Tank

Atlantic Com­munity mem­bers call upon NATO to strengthen its exist­ing part­ner­ships and develop new col­lab­or­at­ive ties in Asia to remain effect­ive in an increas­ingly multi-polar world. In par­tic­u­lar, out­reach to China and India will help address shared chal­lenges such as pir­acy and cyber secur­ity. Dirk Bren­gel­mann, the NATO Assist­ant Sec­ret­ary Gen­eral Polit­ical Affairs and Secur­ity Policy, affirmed that the Alliance’s new part­ner­ship policy allows for more flex­ib­il­ity in its external rela­tions than in the past.

1. Strive to make China more part­ner than rival.

Increased NATO cooper­a­tion with China, with its wealth of human and mater­ial resources, would help improve global gov­ernance and address com­plex and mul­tiply­ing chal­lenges across the world. Allied engage­ment with China would be more effect­ive than the cur­rent “brittle” bilat­eral US-China dia­logue, and should assess shared secur­ity chal­lenges such as ter­ror­ism, nuc­lear pro­lif­er­a­tion, pir­acy and cyber secur­ity, as well as deepen mil­it­ary cooper­a­tion in human­it­arian aid oper­a­tions, peace­keep­ing, and mari­time secur­ity. Open dia­logue is needed to build the mutual trust that both China and the transat­lantic act­ors desire, but each area presents chal­lenges. China’s grow­ing mil­it­ary capa­city allows it to secure its sphere of influ­ence on its own terms, lim­it­ing Beijing’s poten­tial for mari­time engage­ment with NATO. Part­ner­ship in cyber secur­ity is also uncer­tain, as the government’s role in sev­eral attacks ori­gin­at­ing in China remains sus­pect, and Chinese approaches to counter-terrorism are very dif­fer­ent from those of the Alli­ance. The poten­tial for enhanced cooper­a­tion between the two sides remains, but these spe­cific dif­fer­ences must first be resolved (Seidler). In addi­tion to dir­ect out­reach to China, NATO should also identify col­lab­or­a­tion part­ners under the mul­ti­lat­eral frame­work of the Shang­hai Cooper­a­tion Organ­iz­a­tion (SCO) (Christman). The SCO has shown prom­ise as a sta­bil­iz­ing force in Cent­ral Asia and has enhanced its pro­file with coun­tries like Pakistan and India eye­ing SCO mem­ber­ship. NATO and China may both bene­fit from closer cooper­a­tion in address­ing regional chal­lenges with implic­a­tions that are increas­ingly global in scale (Titoff).

2. Develop a mul­ti­lat­eral plan for sta­bil­ity in Cent­ral Asia and Afghanistan.

NATO’s dip­lo­matic efforts in Cent­ral Asia are hindered by a lack of cooper­a­tion with the SCO and another regional ini­ti­at­ive, the Col­lect­ive Secur­ity Treaty Organ­iz­a­tion (CSTO). Invigorating these rela­tion­ships would lend more trans­par­ency to NATO activ­it­ies in the region and help stem the grow­ing drug trade from Afgh­anistan, a major source of ten­sion between the Alli­ance and regional states. If NATO does not improve secur­ity in Afgh­anistan ahead of its with­drawal, regional states will increas­ingly seek closer ties with Rus­sia and China (Shilibekova). Strained rela­tions with Pakistan and the Cent­ral Asian repub­lics require more than a short term fix, and sus­tained cooper­a­tion with Rus­sia and India will be para­mount to sta­bil­iz­ing this volat­ile region. One way for NATO to enhance its rela­tions with these two powers would be to engage with them jointly, in a new tri­lat­eral group, and develop shared strategies for this region (Straus).

3. Strengthen exist­ing regional partnerships.

Every region presents unique chal­lenges, so NATO and the United States should embrace a global secur­ity archi­tec­ture based on region­al­ism, not pre­ten­sions to uni­ver­sal­ism. While NATO should limit future full-scale mil­it­ary inter­ven­tions to Europe (Lawson), bet­ter cooper­a­tion with its Con­tact Coun­tries – Japan, South Korea, Aus­tralia and New Zea­l­and – along with emer­ging states like Brazil, India and South Africa would help ensure the safety of the seas, cyber­space, and the secur­ity of resources (Seidler). A wide, flex­ible net­work of global part­ner­ships will help add both “legal and moral legit­im­acy and oper­a­tional effi­ciency” to NATO under­tak­ings in the future (MacLachlan).