NATO's triple challenge

International Affairs

Volumn 76, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 495-518

  Croft, Stuart ^a   Howorth, Jolyon ^b   Terriff, Terry ^a   Webber, Mark ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF BATH   (United Kingdom)

^c LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0039596786     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2346.00148     Document Type: Review

References (88)

1. Ivo H. Daalder, 'Europe and America aren't divorcing', Wall Street Journal Europe, 10 Dec. 1999.
2. Despite the problems in 1994, the summit was still significant in that it launched both ESDI and PfP. On the sense of crisis at the time, see Bruce George and John Borawski, 'Sympathy for the devil: European security in a revolutionary age', European Security 2: 4, Winter 1993.
3. Charles A. Kupchan and Robert B. Zoellick, 'It can be lonely at the top', Financial Times, 13 Dec. 1999.
4. Cited in Peter Finn, 'Six in NATO upset over EU corps plan', Washington Post, 9 April 2000, p. A16. Orhun is director general of international security affairs in the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs.
5. 'Memorandum of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe' (Vienna, 23 April 1999); I. Ivanov (Russian Foreign Minister), 'An architect of the post-war world order', International Affairs (Moscow), no. 5, 1999.
6. 'Memorandum of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe' (Vienna, 23 April 1999); I. Ivanov (Russian Foreign Minister), 'An architect of the post-war world order', International Affairs (Moscow), no. 5, 1999.
7. Reuters, 'US, Russia put aside their dispute over Kosovo', as carried by Russia Today, 21 June 1999, http://www.russiatoday.com.
8. See 'Areas of Action' section 3, http://ue.eu.int/pesc/article.asp?lang=en&id=99908199.
9. Reuters, 'Leaders sign European arms control treaty', New York Times, 19 Nov. 1999.
10. Russia's relations with both the OSCE and the EU became severely strained over the issue of Chechnya during the winter of 1999-2000.
11. Reuters, 'US unfazed by Russia plan', International Herald Tribune, 20 Jan. 2000.
12. Interviews, NATO, Nov. 1999.
13. See David Hoffman, 'Putin says "why not?" to Russia joining NATO', Washington Post, 6 March 2000, p. A16.
14. C. Wallander, 'Russian national security policy in 2000' (Program on New Approaches to Russian Security Policy, Memo Series, Memo no. 102, Jan. 2000) http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Eponars/POLICY%20MEMOS/Wallander102. html.
15. George Robertson, 'NATO in the new millennium', NATO Review 47: 4, 1999, p. 6.
16. Consultations at NAC ministerial level might also occur, although here there would be little 'value added' given that the PJC itself had met at the level of foreign and defence ministers.
17. 'Joint statement on the occasion of the visit of the Secretary General of NATO, Lord Robertson, in Moscow on 16 February 2000', electronic press release via natodata@listserv.cc.kuleuven.ac.be.
18. Robertson, 'NATO in the new millennium', p. 6. Significantly, meetings of the PJC in March and April, held respectively at military representative and ambassadorial level, discussed issues ansing from NATO's 1999 Strategic Concept and the Russian Security Concept, as well as the nuclear non-proliferation and the implementation of the CFE treaty.
19. R. E. Hunter, 'Solving Russia: final piece in NATO's puzzle', Washington Quarterly 23: 1, 2000, p. 133.
20. 'Washington journal: Clinton speech addresses NATO expansion, Kosovo', Radio Free Europe, Daily Journal, 1 March 1999, http://euro.rferl.org/nca/features/1999/03/F.RU.990301135300.html.
21. 'Washington summit communiqué', 24 April 1999, para. 7; 'Membership Action Plan', 23-4 April 1999, para.1; 'The Alliance's Strategic Concept', 23-4 April 1999, para. 39, all in NATO Review 47: 2, 1999.
22. 'Washington summit communiqué', 24 April 1999, para. 7; 'Membership Action Plan', 23-4 April 1999, para.1; 'The Alliance's Strategic Concept', 23-4 April 1999, para. 39, all in NATO Review 47: 2, 1999.
23. 'Washington summit communiqué', 24 April 1999, para. 7; 'Membership Action Plan', 23-4 April 1999, para.1; 'The Alliance's Strategic Concept', 23-4 April 1999, para. 39, all in NATO Review 47: 2, 1999.
24. Senator W. V. Roth, Jr, NATO in the 21st century, special publication, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, 2 Oct. 1999, para. 82.
25. D. Yost, NATO transformed: the alliance's new roles in international security (Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1998), pp. 117-21.
26. See e.g. David Buchan, 'NATO: US reassures allies on defence plan', Financial Times, 16 Dec. 1999.
27. Study on NATO Enlargement, ch. 5, http://www.nato.int/docu/basictxt/enl-9501.htm; 'Membership Action Plan', para. 3.
28. Study on NATO Enlargement, ch. 5, http://www.nato.int/docu/basictxt/enl-9501.htm; 'Membership Action Plan', para. 3.
29. See 'Knights in Shining Armour? A survey of NATO', The Economist, 24 April 1999, p. 16; interviews, NATO HQ, Feb. 2000.
30. Roth, NATO in the 21st century, para. 128.
31. Y. Bilinsky, 'Will there be a second, third wave in NATO's enlargement?', paper presented to the 31st National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, St Louis, Missouri, Nov. 1999, p. 22.
32. A similar provision is also contained in para. 15 of the NATO-Ukraine Charter of July 1997.
33. Interviews, NATO HQ, Nov. 1999. See also M. P. Ulrich, 'NATO's identity at a crossroads: institutional challenges posed by NATO's enlargement and Partnership for Peace programs', paper delivered to the 40th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, Washington DC, Feb. 1999, http://www.cc.columbia.edu/sec/dlc/ciao/isa/ulm01/.
34. It is not inconceivable that such a deterrent effect operates in the case of the Baltic states, where strategic assurance has, in addition, also involved bilateral diplomatic initiatives such as the US-Baltic Charter of Partnership. Using a similar phraseology to Article 8 of the PfP Framework Document, the Charter provides for consultations should Baltic territorial integrity, independence or security be threatened. See http://www.state.gov/www/regions/eur/ch_9801_baltic_charter.html.
35. P. Viggers (rapporteur), 'NATO-Russia relations and the next steps for enlargement', NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Political Committee, Sub-Committee on NATO Enlargement and the New Democracies, Draft Interim Report, 28 Sept. 1999, para. 39.
36. Gavin Kennedy, Burden sharing in NATO (London: Duckworth, 1979); Todd Sandler and Keith Hartley, The political economy of NATO: past, present and into the 21st century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). For a review of the Sandler and Hartley book, see this issue of International Affairs.
37. Gavin Kennedy, Burden sharing in NATO (London: Duckworth, 1979); Todd Sandler and Keith Hartley, The political economy of NATO: past, present and into the 21st century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). For a review of the Sandler and Hartley book, see this issue of International Affairs.
38. Gavin Kennedy, Burden sharing in NATO (London: Duckworth, 1979); Todd Sandler and Keith Hartley, The political economy of NATO: past, present and into the 21st century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). For a review of the Sandler and Hartley book, see this issue of International Affairs.
39. There is still a great deal of confusion about the strategic ambitions of 'Gaullism' which, in much of the Anglo-Saxon literature, is seen as synonymous with 'national independence'. However, a much-needed revisionism is under way which (correctly) equates Gaullism with the quest for a more balanced alliance. See Frédéric Bozo, Deux Stratégies pour l'Europe: De Gaulle, les Etats-Unis et l'Alliance Atlantique 1958-1969 (Paris: Plon, 1996); Maurice Vaisse et al., eds, La France et l'OTAN 1949-1996 (Bruxelles: Complexe, 1996); Jolyon Howorth, 'France and European security (1944-1995): re-reading the Gaullist "consensus"', in Brian Jenkins and Tony Chafer, eds, France from the Cold War to the New World Order (London: Macmillan, 1995), pp. 17-40.
40. There is still a great deal of confusion about the strategic ambitions of 'Gaullism' which, in much of the Anglo-Saxon literature, is seen as synonymous with 'national independence'. However, a much-needed revisionism is under way which (correctly) equates Gaullism with the quest for a more balanced alliance. See Frédéric Bozo, Deux Stratégies pour l'Europe: De Gaulle, les Etats-Unis et l'Alliance Atlantique 1958-1969 (Paris: Plon, 1996); Maurice Vaisse et al., eds, La France et l'OTAN 1949-1996 (Bruxelles: Complexe, 1996); Jolyon Howorth, 'France and European security (1944-1995): re-reading the Gaullist "consensus"', in Brian Jenkins and Tony Chafer, eds, France from the Cold War to the New World Order (London: Macmillan, 1995), pp. 17-40.
41. There is still a great deal of confusion about the strategic ambitions of 'Gaullism' which, in much of the Anglo-Saxon literature, is seen as synonymous with 'national independence'. However, a much-needed revisionism is under way which (correctly) equates Gaullism with the quest for a more balanced alliance. See Frédéric Bozo, Deux Stratégies pour l'Europe: De Gaulle, les Etats-Unis et l'Alliance Atlantique 1958-1969 (Paris: Plon, 1996); Maurice Vaisse et al., eds, La France et l'OTAN 1949-1996 (Bruxelles: Complexe, 1996); Jolyon Howorth, 'France and European security (1944-1995): re-reading the Gaullist "consensus"', in Brian Jenkins and Tony Chafer, eds, France from the Cold War to the New World Order (London: Macmillan, 1995), pp. 17-40.
42. NATO, press communiqué M-NAC-1(96)63, Final Communiqué, 6 June 1996, para. 5.
43. Ibid., para. 7.
44. Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette declared: 'France is satisfied. ESDI, which has never been able to emerge throughout the 47 years of the Alliance's existence, now moves from words to deeds': La Politique Etrangère de la France, May-June 1996 (press conference 3 June 1996). Most French press comment on Berlin highlighted what was perceived as a new potential for European 'emancipation from American tutelage' (Libération, 4 June 1996, p. 4). Anglo-Saxon headlines were more guarded: 'A new kind of Alliance', The Economist, 1 June 1996; 'Nato broadens combat flexibility', Independent, 4 June 1996; 'Towards a better NATO', Wall Street Journal Europe, 3 June 1996.
45. Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette declared: 'France is satisfied. ESDI, which has never been able to emerge throughout the 47 years of the Alliance's existence, now moves from words to deeds': La Politique Etrangère de la France, May-June 1996 (press conference 3 June 1996). Most French press comment on Berlin highlighted what was perceived as a new potential for European 'emancipation from American tutelage' (Libération, 4 June 1996, p. 4). Anglo-Saxon headlines were more guarded: 'A new kind of Alliance', The Economist, 1 June 1996; 'Nato broadens combat flexibility', Independent, 4 June 1996; 'Towards a better NATO', Wall Street Journal Europe, 3 June 1996.
46. Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette declared: 'France is satisfied. ESDI, which has never been able to emerge throughout the 47 years of the Alliance's existence, now moves from words to deeds': La Politique Etrangère de la France, May-June 1996 (press conference 3 June 1996). Most French press comment on Berlin highlighted what was perceived as a new potential for European 'emancipation from American tutelage' (Libération, 4 June 1996, p. 4). Anglo-Saxon headlines were more guarded: 'A new kind of Alliance', The Economist, 1 June 1996; 'Nato broadens combat flexibility', Independent, 4 June 1996; 'Towards a better NATO', Wall Street Journal Europe, 3 June 1996.
47. Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette declared: 'France is satisfied. ESDI, which has never been able to emerge throughout the 47 years of the Alliance's existence, now moves from words to deeds': La Politique Etrangère de la France, May-June 1996 (press conference 3 June 1996). Most French press comment on Berlin highlighted what was perceived as a new potential for European 'emancipation from American tutelage' (Libération, 4 June 1996, p. 4). Anglo-Saxon headlines were more guarded: 'A new kind of Alliance', The Economist, 1 June 1996; 'Nato broadens combat flexibility', Independent, 4 June 1996; 'Towards a better NATO', Wall Street Journal Europe, 3 June 1996.
48. Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette declared: 'France is satisfied. ESDI, which has never been able to emerge throughout the 47 years of the Alliance's existence, now moves from words to deeds': La Politique Etrangère de la France, May-June 1996 (press conference 3 June 1996). Most French press comment on Berlin highlighted what was perceived as a new potential for European 'emancipation from American tutelage' (Libération, 4 June 1996, p. 4). Anglo-Saxon headlines were more guarded: 'A new kind of Alliance', The Economist, 1 June 1996; 'Nato broadens combat flexibility', Independent, 4 June 1996; 'Towards a better NATO', Wall Street Journal Europe, 3 June 1996.
49. On 13 October 1998 the US envoy, Richard Holbrooke, concluded a deal with Slobodan Milosevic which effectively scuttled several months of patient, consensual alliance diplomacy. See, on this, IISS, Strategic Survey 1998-1999 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 119-23.
50. Richard G. Whitman, Amsterdam's unfinished business? The Blair government's initiative and the future of the Western European Union, Institute for Security Studies, Occasional Paper no. 7 (Paris: WEU, 1999).
51. Helsinki European Council, 10-11 December 1999, Presidency Conclusions, paras 25-8.
52. Heinz Gärtner, 'Crisis management and small states', unpublished paper presented to the colloquium, 'Peace by pieces or pieces of peace?', European Institute for Public Administration, Maastricht, Nov. 1999; Gustav Gustenau, Towards a common European policy on security and defence: an Austrian view of the challenges for the 'post-neutrals', Institute for Security Studies, Occasional Paper no. 9 (Paris: WEU, Oct. 1999); Hanna Ojanen, Participation and influence: Finland, Sweden and the post-Amsterdam development of CFSP, Institute for Security Studies, Occasional Paper, no. 11 (Pans: WEU, Jan. 2000).
53. Heinz Gärtner, 'Crisis management and small states', unpublished paper presented to the colloquium, 'Peace by pieces or pieces of peace?', European Institute for Public Administration, Maastricht, Nov. 1999; Gustav Gustenau, Towards a common European policy on security and defence: an Austrian view of the challenges for the 'post-neutrals', Institute for Security Studies, Occasional Paper no. 9 (Paris: WEU, Oct. 1999); Hanna Ojanen, Participation and influence: Finland, Sweden and the post-Amsterdam development of CFSP, Institute for Security Studies, Occasional Paper, no. 11 (Pans: WEU, Jan. 2000).
54. Heinz Gärtner, 'Crisis management and small states', unpublished paper presented to the colloquium, 'Peace by pieces or pieces of peace?', European Institute for Public Administration, Maastricht, Nov. 1999; Gustav Gustenau, Towards a common European policy on security and defence: an Austrian view of the challenges for the 'post-neutrals', Institute for Security Studies, Occasional Paper no. 9 (Paris: WEU, Oct. 1999); Hanna Ojanen, Participation and influence: Finland, Sweden and the post-Amsterdam development of CFSP, Institute for Security Studies, Occasional Paper, no. 11 (Pans: WEU, Jan. 2000).
55. The Dutch government in early 2000 was dominated by traditional Atlanticists, who were more than usually resistant to French attempts to engineer European autonomy. However, establishment security opinion in the Netherlands probably accepted the inevitability of ESDI as long ago as 1994; see Alfred van Staden, 'The Netherlands', in Jolyon Howorth and Anand Menon, eds, The European Union and national defence policy (London: Routledge, 1997). And in the first half of 2000, the Dutch government accepted French proposals for bilateral naval cooperation.
56. Jolyon Howorth, 'Franco-British defence cooperation and the compatibility of ESDP with NATO', Survival, Summer 2000. Note that, at Helsinki, agreement was reached on adopting 'collective capability goals' in these fields. But that agreement was somewhat buried in Annexes I-IV of the Presidency Conclusions.
57. Tim Garden and John Roper, 'Next steps to a common defence policy', private paper, London, Feb. 1999; François Heisbourg, 'The EU needs defence convergence criteria', CER Bulletin, no. 6, June/July 1999; Alain Richard, 'Instaurer des critères de convergence', Le Monde, 14 July 1999. Mathias Jopp, European defence policy: the debate on the institutional aspects (Bonn: Institut für Europäische Politik, July 1999), pp. 26-31, analyses the issues involved in the convergence debate.
58. Tim Garden and John Roper, 'Next steps to a common defence policy', private paper, London, Feb. 1999; François Heisbourg, 'The EU needs defence convergence criteria', CER Bulletin, no. 6, June/July 1999; Alain Richard, 'Instaurer des critères de convergence', Le Monde, 14 July 1999. Mathias Jopp, European defence policy: the debate on the institutional aspects (Bonn: Institut für Europäische Politik, July 1999), pp. 26-31, analyses the issues involved in the convergence debate.
59. Tim Garden and John Roper, 'Next steps to a common defence policy', private paper, London, Feb. 1999; François Heisbourg, 'The EU needs defence convergence criteria', CER Bulletin, no. 6, June/July 1999; Alain Richard, 'Instaurer des critères de convergence', Le Monde, 14 July 1999. Mathias Jopp, European defence policy: the debate on the institutional aspects (Bonn: Institut für Europäische Politik, July 1999), pp. 26-31, analyses the issues involved in the convergence debate.
60. Tim Garden and John Roper, 'Next steps to a common defence policy', private paper, London, Feb. 1999; François Heisbourg, 'The EU needs defence convergence criteria', CER Bulletin, no. 6, June/July 1999; Alain Richard, 'Instaurer des critères de convergence', Le Monde, 14 July 1999. Mathias Jopp, European defence policy: the debate on the institutional aspects (Bonn: Institut für Europäische Politik, July 1999), pp. 26-31, analyses the issues involved in the convergence debate.
61. 'Elaboration of the headline goal, "Food for Thought"', Feb. 2000.
62. Frédérique Sachwald, Defence industry restructuring: the end of an economic exception (Paris: French Institute of International Relations, 1999); Gordon Adams et al., Europe's defence industry: a transatlantic future? (London: Centre for Economic Reform, 1999).
63. Frédérique Sachwald, Defence industry restructuring: the end of an economic exception (Paris: French Institute of International Relations, 1999); Gordon Adams et al., Europe's defence industry: a transatlantic future? (London: Centre for Economic Reform, 1999).
64. IISS, The Military Balance 1999-2000 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 300. Turkey and Norway between them spent another $11.3 billion.
65. Michael O'Hanlon, Defense planning for the late 1990s: beyond the Desert Storm framework (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1995). O'Hanlon discusses his own and other proposals in 'Transforming NATO: the role of European forces', Survival 39: 3, Autumn 1997, pp. 5-15. For a European perspective, see Nicole Gnesotto, ed., Burdensharing in NATO: the new setting (Paris: IFRI, 1999), notes 11-13 (studies by Gnesotto, Stanley Sloan and Karl Heinz Kamp).
66. Michael O'Hanlon, Defense planning for the late 1990s: beyond the Desert Storm framework (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1995). O'Hanlon discusses his own and other proposals in 'Transforming NATO: the role of European forces', Survival 39: 3, Autumn 1997, pp. 5-15. For a European perspective, see Nicole Gnesotto, ed., Burdensharing in NATO: the new setting (Paris: IFRI, 1999), notes 11-13 (studies by Gnesotto, Stanley Sloan and Karl Heinz Kamp).
67. Michael O'Hanlon, Defense planning for the late 1990s: beyond the Desert Storm framework (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1995). O'Hanlon discusses his own and other proposals in 'Transforming NATO: the role of European forces', Survival 39: 3, Autumn 1997, pp. 5-15. For a European perspective, see Nicole Gnesotto, ed., Burdensharing in NATO: the new setting (Paris: IFRI, 1999), notes 11-13 (studies by Gnesotto, Stanley Sloan and Karl Heinz Kamp).
68. David C. Gompert and F. Stephen Larrabee, America and Europe: a partnership for a new era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 40.
69. Tom Buerkle, 'NATO first, US warns, as Europeans plan defense', International Herald Tribune, 25 Nov. 1999. Fitchett (art cit. fn. 53) was told by a French official that the EU could never write such a commitment into any treaty text.
70. Daalder, 'Europe and America aren't divorcing'. During both the Bosnian and the Gulf crises there was continuous consultation between the Elysée and the White House.
71. Alliance officials identify these three initiatives as being internal adaptation. See e.g. General Klaus Naumann, Chairman of the Military Committee, 'A new NATO for a new century', address to the Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung Group, Brussels, 15 Oct. 1997, at www.nato.int/docu/speech/1997/S97101b.htm.
72. As Alexander Vershbow, US Ambassador to NATO, claimed, 'We also need practical working contacts to hammer out the procedures and arrangements to permit NATO planning and assets to be provided to the EU when needed. The EU is curiously reluctant to move forward on establishing such links. This is also unfinished business.' Vershbow, remarks on 'Preserving the transatlantic link', 24 Jan. 2000, at http://usa.grmbl.com/s20000124d.html.
73. Deputy Secretary Talbott, 'A new NATO for a new era', address at the Royal United Services Institute, London, 10 March 1999, at http://www.state.gov/www/policy_remarks/1999/990310_talbott_nato. html. Also quoted in 'Focus: US cautions Europe on defence plans', Reuters, 10 March 1999, at http://customnews.cnn.com/cnews/pna.show_story?p_art_id= 3497630&p_section_ name=On+Target&p_art_type=97734&p_subcat=NATO&p_category=.
74. Deputy Secretary Talbott, 'A new NATO for a new era', address at the Royal United Services Institute, London, 10 March 1999, at http://www.state.gov/www/policy_remarks/1999/990310_talbott_nato. html. Also quoted in 'Focus: US cautions Europe on defence plans', Reuters, 10 March 1999, at http://customnews.cnn.com/cnews/pna.show_story?p_art_id= 3497630&p_section_ name=On+Target&p_art_type=97734&p_subcat=NATO&p_category=.
75. See Anne Swardson, 'EU to form European military force: group says 60, 000 rapid-response troops would complement NATO', Washington Post, 12 Dec. 1999, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/12/190l-121299-idx. html.
76. Interviews, NATO HQ, Nov. 1999, Jan. 2000.
77. The French, among others, have expressed concern that a Europe-only operation with a NATO commander using NATO capabilities would give the United States what amounts to a veto. See Craig R. Whitney, 'European leaders plan a rapid intervention force', New York Times, 26 Nov. 1999, at http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/112699europe-force.html.
78. See 'Building the European Security and Defence Identity within the alliance'.
79. As US NATO Ambassador Alexander Vershbow warned, 'The provision of assets and capabilities by the Alliance is not automatic; as much as we are trying to "assure" access and to indicate that there's a "presumption of availability" of NATO assets, there will sail have to be a decision by the NATO Council. Therefore, it is in the EU's interest to make sure that the non-EU players are comfortable with the policy that they are being asked to support.' Remarks by Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, US Permanent Representative, 'Next steps on European security and defense: a US view', paper delivered at the conference 'The development of the Common European Security and Defense Policy: the integration project of the next decade', Berlin, 17 Dec. 1999, at http://www.nato.int/usa/ambassador/s991217a.htm.
80. As Deputy Secretary of State Talbott put it, ESDI 'must reinforce, not duplicate or dilute the role of the Alliance as a whole': Talbott, 'The new Europe and the new NATO', address to the German Society for Foreign Policy, Bonn, Germany, 4 Feb. 1999, at http://www.state.gov/www/policy_remarks/1999/990310_talbott_nato. html.
81. See e.g. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, 'The state of the alliance: an American perspective', address at the North Atlantic Council, Brussels, 15 Dec. 1999, at http://www.state.gov/www/policy_remarks/1999/991215_talbott_nac. html.
82. See North Atlantic Council, Defense Capabilities Initiative, NAC-S(99)69, 25 April 1999.
83. See e.g. remarks as prepared by Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen on 'European Security and Defense Identity', Munich, 5 Feb. 2000, Defense Viewpoint, at http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/2000/s20000205-secdef2.htm.
84. See e.g. Craig R. Whitney, 'Europe says its strike force won't impair role of NATO', New York Times, 2 Dec. 1999, at http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/120299europe-force.html.
85. See e.g. Cohen, 'European Security and Defense Identity'.
86. See Craig R. Whitney, 'Americans alarmed over European Union's defense plan', New York Times, 11 Oct. 1999, at http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/101199europe-defense. html.
87. As Alexander Vershbow, US Ambassador to NATO, has observed, 'We need to avoid separate EU and NATO planning systems that lead to different standards for EU and other allies' forces. That could lead to a two-tier Alliance, weakening our ability to work together in a major crisis.' Remarks on 'Preserving the Transatlantic Link'.
88. Vershbow, having asked rhetorically, 'Why would the European Union want to fully separate its nations military capabilities from NATO?', went on to note that 'the goal should be both to strengthen the Alliance's transatlantic capacity to deal with crises and to support an autonomous European capacity to act in situations where NATO is not engaged. If we don't try to do both of these things, we risk weakening the Alliance, eroding the solidarity that is so important to the future of the Alliance, and inviting skepticism from our publics and our parliaments that NATO is worth the long-term commitment and the long-term investment needed to keep it strong.' Vershbow, 'Next steps on European security and defense'. Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott, more blundy stated: 'We would not want to see an ESDI that comes into being first within NATO but then grows out of NATO and finally grows away from NATO, since that would lead to an ESDI that initially duplicates NATO but that could eventually compete with NATO. That's a long-term concern, obviously, but NATO, after all, is about the long-term.' Talbott, 'America's stake in a strong Europe', remarks at a conference on 'The future of NATO', London, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 7 Oct. 1999, at http://www.state.gov/www/policy_remarks/1999/991007_talbott_london. html.