NATO’s Implementation of UN SCR 1325
NATO has utilised UN SCR 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’ as a tool to justify advocating increasing women in the military in order to counter manpower shortages.
NATO has utilised UN SCR 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’ as a tool to justify advocating increasing women in the military in order to counter manpower shortages.
By invading Afghanistan, NATO took both political and moral responsibility for its future. It is possible that, at the end of the transition process, NATO will fail its test of responsibility
NATO’s recent Chicago Summit produced no truly historical decisions. It did what was required to keep the Alliance’s slow-motion overhaul on track, focusing on taking forward a “responsible” transition in Afghanistan and the cause of “smart” defence back home.
At present, the NATO mission in Afghanistan is a failure. Though the Taliban regime was overthrown, violence continues to plague daily life across the country.
Russia’s Balkans strategy is one of deterrence. It will maintain a high-profile denial of Kosovo’s independence and attempt to block the new nation from the international stage.
Faced with fiscal pressures at home and rising powers elsewhere, the US is reducing its troop presence in Europe. The interests of European security can be best served by Britain and France developing a stronger joint expeditionary capacity.
The China–Russia veto does not prove the irrelevance of the UN Security Council. Rather, it proves that the politics of the Security Council must be got right before an R2P military intervention; and the political equilibrium should be maintained during the operation.
Without Western responsibility for the outcome of the intervention in Libya and without any transformative promise, Western powers were strengthened morally and politically through their actions, whereas in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, they were humbled and often humiliated.
The UN-mandated intervention in Libya is now officially at an end. Perhaps only time will tell whether Libya turns out to have been a great case of international intervention or something rather less.
The death of Qaddafi is, naturally, a very public symbol that his reign of oppression is over and will not return, but this is not the end of the story for Libyans, the UN or NATO. The campaign to maintain peace between the various factions could prove to be more difficult than the defeat of Qaddafi’s forces.
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