Soldiers from the U.S., Italy, and Afghanistan inspect displayed ammunition which was found during a joint search operation of NATO and Afghan forces in Gozara district of Herat, province west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 18, 2009.
AP Photo
"Testing the NATO Alliance: Afghanistan and the Future of Cooperation"
Op-Ed, Harvard International Review, volume 31, issue 2
Summer 2009
Author: Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program
Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security
At the heart of the alliance is article five of the North Atlantic Treaty: if one NATO member is attacked, all will respond. Now, as US President Obama reminded us in Strasbourg, NATO "remains the strongest alliance that the world has ever known." NATO's summit, however, revealed the weakness of that alliance. Contrary to the spirit of the NATO treaty, some countries are doing much more in Afghanistan than others. The discrepancy is so great that it is almost misleading to call it a NATO mission. Countries cannot share the benefits of collective security without sharing its burdens too. Troops are needed to support the upcoming Afghan elections, to train Afghan soldiers, and to rebuild the country. But all of this depends on the security situation; the most urgent need is for troops to fight the Taliban.
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Full text of this publication is available at:
http://hir.harvard.edu/index.php?page=article&id=1918
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