Colucci: NATO at “crossroads of identity and purpose”

Lamont Colucci

Lamont Colucci, the chair of politics and government at Ripon College, wrote in a recent Ripon Forum op-ed that NATO must create relevancy and power to not only survive, but also thrive.

Colucci argued that NATO could serve as “the best conduit” for American national security by being a united front for the democratic west in an era when Americans are likely to oppose unilateral action to guarantee peace abroad.

Given the Obama administration’s high-profile “pivot to Asia,” events in the Middle East, and tactical counterterrorism issues, NATO risks becoming a “two-tiered” alliance in which a minority of partners have the ability to deploy combat operations outside their own borders, Colucci said.

Five percent of NATO allies currently have the ability to deploy combat forces outside of their borders.

“Where does this leave the alliance in the 21st century?” Colucci asked. “Like all organic healthy bodies, it must adapt and grow on its foundations. There needs to be a streamlined approach that blends old and new into a new, vibrant, proactive alliance. The defensive nature of the alliance was dictated by the rules of the Cold War. A shield of defense must now be transformed into a sword of offense.”

NATO allies must be “invested in NATO as a bulwark of western civilization,” not merely as a technocratic treaty system, Colucci said.

“Second, United States leadership is not only critical, but fundamental,” Colucci wrote. “This means that America is always out in front of policy and practice. Our European and Canadian partners are unwilling to go to the mat without us. The tired sentiment that the ‘Europeans should understand their own interests in a stable world order’ was never accurate. America is the indispensable partner and leader of the alliance and should be bold in its leadership – leading from the front.”

Colucci also outlined the need for eastward NATO expansion, a streamlined plan for integrating allies outside NATO, adoption of a cohesive counterterrorism plan, and a geostrategic mission that doesn’t merely react to crisis.

“This mission must combine the promotion of democratic civilization, human rights and realist interests,” Colucci wrote. “NATO’s shield that surrounds Europe, the United States and Canada is a given; the sword that collectively deals with tyranny, genocide and illegal conquest would be the goal. This will not only deter war and atrocities, it will unite the West and relieve the singular burden from one nation, or a small group of them.”

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