At its 60th anniversary, NATO is making great efforts to adapt to a new strategic direction the years to come. From “the parochial national interests” to the more generous “common values”, everything seems to require a new approach and clearer definitions.
It is not easy to shift from the discussion about the future of the Alliance to what kind of organisation we really need in the security environment of the next twenty years. The solidity of the construction NATO had as a winner of the Cold War is slowly becoming a kind of “Pisa Tower” construction which lost some of its initial verticality. The expectations and responsibilities of the Alliance are no longer covering exactly the original features of the 1949 “raison d’être”.
A Domino of Instability One of the centers of gravity and the main challenge to international security and stability are currently to be located in the area of the Greater Middle East. The region is laden with most sensitive geopolitical issues of the present international landscape: the continuing Israeli – Palestinian conflict, an Iraqi state with a still fragile inter-sectarian and inter-ethnic balance of power, the endless political and territorial disputes between Hamas and Israel, a weak Lebanon state structure unable to project rule of law mechanisms on the whole sovereign territory, a growing Taliban insurgency that routinely challenges the ability of Kabul to control and stabilize Afghanistan and also the capacity of Pakistan to ensure its stability and sovereignty, a.o.
