Group gathers to discuss NATO's future

NORFOLK

Like anybody who's managed to live 60 years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been using its birthday to take stock of its life.

There have been ceremonies and proclamations, here and at the mothership in Belgium. There have also been calls for the alliance to justify itself in modern-day global affairs.

On Thursday, a group from NATO's Allied Command Transformation gathered with other civilian and military leaders at Old Dominion University as part of this year's Azalea Festival for a day of speeches and panel discussions on issues of relevance and "the future."

Gen. Sir John Reith kicked things off, touting the alliance's historic success but calling for all its members to pay their share - be it in troops and equipment or in funding - for what is logistically difficult and expensive work.

The former deputy supreme allied commander for Europe said NATO needs to work more with non governmental organizations and use the political clout of its member countries to make things happen. It also needs to set policy on how to operate outside its traditional boundaries, as it is doing now in Afghanistan.

Reith's thinking was echoed on a panel addressing security challenges, as the specter of a resurgent Russia lurked in the corners of the room.

As NATO becomes more important, it serves as an ideal mechanism for the United States and European Union to work together, said Ian J. Brzezinski, currently of Booz Allen Hamilton and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and son of foreign-policy king Zbigniew Brzezinski.

The challenges, he continued, include re-establishing credibility after failing to respond to Russia's incursion into Georgia last year, as well as having members live up to force commitments and properly address a broadening array of threats such as non state actors and irregular warfare.

Lt. Col. Ilmar Tamm, who runs NATO's cyberdefense center in Estonia, urged member nations to share their high-tech know-how with one another and incorporate cyber-warfare components into future training exercises.

Ambassador Vaclav Bartuska, ambassador-at-large for energy security for the Czech Republic, spoke of how Europe likes to say that Russia is dangerous but that Russia is merely doing what it has to do to maintain itself. Since its only real exports are gas and oil, that will be its leverage.

A former student leader during the end of communism in the former Czechoslovakia, Bartuska said that when his country freed itself, it had only a Western democratic model to aspire to.

Nowadays, he said, there is the Russian-Chinese model that combines relatively free enterprise with a strong central government. There is also a more "spoiled" mind-set at home that will continue to drive energy issues well into the future.

"We have a luxury lifestyle that consumes so much energy, and we've been used to it for generations," Bartuska said.

Matthew Jones, (757) 446-2949, matthew.jones@pilotonline.com