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La France a mobilisé des moyens de la Marine nationale pour participer aux recherches des débris de l’Airbus A320 d’Egyptair qui s’est abîmé en Méditerranée dans la nuit du 18 au 19 mai et anticiper les recherches sous-marines de l’épave. Le patrouilleur de haute mer « Enseigne de vaisseau Jacoubet », qui a quitté le port militaire ...

About two months before the NATO Summit in Warsaw, many wonder what the new strategy of the alliance in relation to Russia will look like.

Speaking at GLOBSEC 2016, a security conference in Bratislava held in mid-April, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski emphasized that Poland expected “presence, presence, presence” of NATO troops and bases on the Eastern flank. Other Allies, including the United States and Germany, do not deem it necessary to build new NATO infrastructure. As Jim Townsend, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy, put it, “we support an enhanced presence, but we can do it without bases, bases, bases.” The current debate thus centers on the question how heavy the new NATO footprint on the Eastern flank should be.

Yet, while arguing about the differences between a persistent or permanent presence or what German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen called a “permanent rotational presence,” the Allies risk losing sight of the bigger strategic picture. The best outcome of the Warsaw Summit would be a clearly articulated common position of the Alliance that is well understood both by Russia and at home.

NATO can build on its previous efforts here. After all, reports on the disagreements among the Allies obscure the fact that NATO has been remarkably united in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s continued interference in Ukraine.

On the one hand, the Alliance has embarked on the “biggest strengthening of our collective defense in decades”, as Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg underlined at the Munich Security Conference in 2016. In addition to the creation of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) and an increase in exercises as decided at the Wales Summit in 2014, the Allies have agreed to strengthen NATO’s forward presence on the eastern flank. Even member states such as Germany, often criticized as overly reluctant, have demonstrated their clear commitment to a renewed emphasis on collective defense.

On the other hand, NATO members have recently tried to reinvigorate the NATO-Russia Council and underlined that they are open to dialogue with Moscow. All members, including those long accused of blocking engagement with Russia, have finally supported this decision. NATO member states should strengthen both aspects of this renewed dual-track policy—responding to the security needs of its most exposed members, while at the same time advocating dialogue and heightened transparency to diffuse tension in their relations with Russia.

The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, only a more visible presence will make a renewed emphasis on dialogue meaningful, signaling to Russia that NATO will not be intimidated by Moscow. And only a clear commitment to dialogue will allow all Allies to back a stronger defensive posture.

First, demonstrating that attacking one of NATO’s frontline states means an assault on all of NATO requires a multinational presence that goes significantly beyond the decisions taken at the Wales Summit. The Russian government needs to understand that it will not reach its goals by threatening its neighbors and testing NATO’s resolve. Although U.S. efforts to support the Eastern flank are crucial, it would be advisable to integrate it as much as possible under a NATO umbrella. This would not only signal the united stance of NATO, but would also be seen as less threatening by Moscow.

Moreover, the respective host countries should be supported in strengthening their own armed forces. While it makes sense that other Allies police the Baltic air space, they can expect the member states that feel particularly threatened to invest more in their own defensive capabilities, including necessary infrastructure such as airfields that multinational reinforcements would require. Among the Allies on the Eastern flank, only Estonia and Poland fulfill the NATO commitment to spend two percent of their GDP on defense.

Second, a more visible NATO presence necessitates new diplomatic efforts. Although the Alliance sees its moves as entirely defensive, Moscow will still read them as offensive and use them as a pretext for its own “counter measures” that in reality have often been long in the making. NATO should continue to propose new transparency mechanisms. It should also avoid being seen as the party rejecting dialogue, thus serving as an easy target for Russian propaganda. Even if it will not bring immediate results the reinvigoration of the NATO-Russia Council was thus an important message in itself.

NATO must also get better at getting its message across. Above all, this means that national leaders have to be more vocal and stress the differences between Russian and NATO policies. All information fact-sheets published by the NATO bureaucracy will not suffice if national politicians do not actively make the case for the new posture. In some member states, governments try to avoid a public debate on the revamped efforts, portraying them as minor adaptations.

This allows for misinformation and misinterpretations. Media reports sometimes claim that the NATO-Russia Founding Act generally rules out the stationing of troops in NATO’s “new” member states although the wording tells a different story. Few even mention that NATO publishes all its exercises on its website and invites Russian observers.

Russia, in contrast, regularly surprises NATO with snap exercises and ignores proposals to heighten transparency although numerous close encounters between the Russian military and Western military units or even civilian airliners have highlighted the danger of escalation. And while NATO members discuss the deployment of a few battalions, Russia has already announced that three new divisions will be created in its Western military district. For every NATO soldier on the Eastern flank, there will be roughly five to ten new Russian troops. This is hardly an escalation by NATO.

By avoiding public debate to explain and defend NATO’s new posture, national leaders endanger the long-term stability of the Alliance. Some opinion polls already show that the public support for the collective defense commitment is fragile. This is dangerous because deterrence only works if it is credible. But domestic support for deterrence will only be secured if the Alliance convincingly demonstrates that it is not interested in confrontation. It thus needs to offer dialogue, propose additional arms control steps, and think about a long-term perspective for NATO-Russia relations.

In the end, the question of what exactly the enhanced presence of NATO on the Eastern flank will look like is of secondary importance. What will matter most is whether the outcome will send a signal of unity and resolve, supported across the Alliance. In order to achieve this NATO needs both deterrence and dialogue. Both pillars of the renewed dual-track approach should be strengthened in Warsaw.

Tobias Bunde is Head of Policy and Analysis at the Munich Security Conference and Research Associate with the Center for International Security Policy at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

This article was originally published by EastWest Institute Policy Innovation Blog

The post NATO Back on Dual-Track? appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.

ÄNDERUNGSANTRÄGE 1 - 257 - Entwurf eines Berichts zur Verantwortlichkeit von Unternehmen für schwere Menschenrechtsverletzungen in Drittstaaten
Ausschuss für auswärtige Angelegenheiten

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2016 - EP

Szijjártó Péternek a külügyminiszterek hétfői ülésén kitartó érvelés után sikerült magyar alapanyagokkal fűszereznie az Európai Unió alapvetően olasz recept alapján készülő főztjét a migráció külső dimenziójáról. Az erőfeszítés leglátványosabb eredménye Orbán Viktor Schengen 2.0 javaslatának megemlítése Matteo Renzi „migrációs paktuma” mellett.

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Le 13 Mai 1916, une très importante cérémonie s’est déroulée sur le terrain du 1er groupe d’aviation de Dijon : la présentation du premier drapeau de l’aviation militaire remis à l’armée quelques mois plus tôt par le président de la République Raymond Poincaré. Ce drapeau, présenté pour la première fois aux aviateurs, n’était rien de moins ...

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L’organisation Etat islamique (EI) appelle ses partisans à frapper aux États-Unis et en Europe pendant le ramadan, le mois du jeûne musulman qui commence début juin. Dans un message audio diffusé samedi via Twitter et qui lui est attribué, Abou Mohamed al Adnani, porte-parole de l’EI, déclare que le ramadan est le « mois de la ...

Manchester United limoge son entraineur Louis Van Gaal après deux saisons décevantes. Son successeur devrait s'appeler José Mourinho

Das griechische Parlament hat alle von den Gläubigern geforderten Reformen verabschiedet und die Regierung in Athen hofft nun auf neue Hilfen. Die…

Mardi 17 mai 2016, Dominique Reynié, Directeur général de la Fondation pour l’innovation politique, a reçu Geneviève Férone-Creuzet pour une discussion autour de son dernier ouvrage Le crépuscule fossile.

Cet article Vidéo : discussion autour de l’ouvrage de Geneviève Férone-Creuzet « Le crépuscule fossile » est apparu en premier sur Fondapol.

The rise in jihadist attacks, terrorists' profiles and the special role of women in ISIS, recruitment of young people on social media and ISIS communication strategies, terrorist financing, the links between terrorism and crime and striking the right balance between privacy and security on encryption were among the topics debated by Civil Liberties Committee MEPs and Head of the Europol Counter Terrorism Centre Manuel Navarrete Paniagua on Monday afternoon.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

The rise in jihadist attacks, terrorists' profiles and the special role of women in ISIS, recruitment of young people on social media and ISIS communication strategies, terrorist financing, the links between terrorism and crime and striking the right balance between privacy and security on encryption were among the topics debated by Civil Liberties Committee MEPs and Head of the Europol Counter Terrorism Centre Manuel Navarrete Paniagua on Monday afternoon.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

The rise in jihadist attacks, terrorists' profiles and the special role of women in ISIS, recruitment of young people on social media and ISIS communication strategies, terrorist financing, the links between terrorism and crime and striking the right balance between privacy and security on encryption were among the topics debated by Civil Liberties Committee MEPs and Head of the Europol Counter Terrorism Centre Manuel Navarrete Paniagua on Monday afternoon.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

The rise in jihadist attacks, terrorists' profiles and the special role of women in ISIS, recruitment of young people on social media and ISIS communication strategies, terrorist financing, the links between terrorism and crime and striking the right balance between privacy and security on encryption were among the topics debated by Civil Liberties Committee MEPs and Head of the Europol Counter Terrorism Centre Manuel Navarrete Paniagua on Monday afternoon.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

The impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff will become a precedent setting case in the historic and legal tradition of Brazil’s democracy. Whatever side Brazilians are on regarding president Rousseff’s six month suspension and possible permanent impeachment, a response was to the crisis was necessary. After so much popular demand for change and a severe corruption scandal facing Rousseff’s party—the Worker’s Party or PT—some action had to be taken.

As of now, it is unclear whether or not Rousseff will survive the Senate trial. The accusations against her that lead to the suspension are not directly tied to the corruption scandal plaguing the PT. President Rousseff has been accused of boosting her own economic policy record by using funds from state banks to cover budget shortfalls, which may have violated fiscal responsibility laws in Brazil. Although extremely worrisome, these practices are not linked to the corruption scandal which lead to the revelations that PT party members were taking bribes from large Brazilian companies.

Indeed, the end result of her trial may result in the reversal of her impeachment as the focus of the corruption scandal was not on her personal actions, but that of PT party members. Nevertheless, the scandals have left a indelible stain on her party’s image that will remain after the Senate trial.

There are strong precedents to it. In the British parliamentary democracy system, it is a customary tradition that a minister in charge of a department affected by a scandal should step down from his or her position, even if the minister was not aware of or linked to the scandal personally. There are two reasons for this custom: to maintain accountability of a department by the top decision makers so that the public ultimately benefits, and to ensure the legitimacy of the government and their party in the future application of policy making and governing.

President Rousseff may survive the impeachment trial as the case against her is not as solid as many of the accusations rallied against her fellow party members. But the governing party will no longer be perceived as legitimate in the eyes of the Brazilian public. Rousseff’s possible success in the Senate trial will only prolong the inevitable: a loss in the next presidential elections and the implosion of the PT.

Claims that the constitutional process leading to her impeachment is tantamount to a coup, or that horrific results will come from an opposition government, or that the interim president will perpetuate Brazil’s dysfunctional political system abound . All parties should accept that if a government is not seen as legitimate by Brazilians, an immediate election should be called in. It is what a healthy democracy should demand and a positive end result of their constitutional process.

The post Challenging Brazil’s Democratic System May Make It Stronger appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.