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World experts urge civilian approach in NATO, EU security policy
The Brussels-based Security and Defence Agenda’s (SDA) 60-page report on the study, called the 2010 Security Jam, summarizes 10 key recommendations put forward by the 3,815 participants. The report will soon be presented to NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton.
The project was organized by a coalition of leading international think tanks including Chatham House, the Atlantic Council of the United States, the Global Humanitarian Forum, the Open Society Institute, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Barcelona Center for International Studies (CIDOB), the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, Bertelsmann Stiftung, the Geneva Center for Security Policy and Friends of Europe as well as the SDA. It brought together military, diplomatic and civilian experts from 124 countries online to discuss the challenges facing global security.
One of the strongest of the 10 recommendations is that NATO and the EU should take steps to nurture a civilian approach to security policy by consulting civilian actors such as NGOs before and during military operations. The report says experts stressed that “interventions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq revealed the same problem time after time: military progress is hard to achieve without a civilian strategy,” also underlining that humanitarian aspects of armed conflicts can best be met through operational planning with the input of civilians.
The report bears particular significance as it embraces the security concerns of people from around the world and is also expected to have an effect on the institutions’ approach to the definition of security policy. Over 60 percent of all participants have more than five years of experience in security, defense and development issues while military figures made up slightly more than 5 percent of participants.
Another recommendation draws attention to the concept of human security, which relates to avoiding threats people face daily. The report sees good governance as a prerequisite for that to happen: “States must serve their nation, not the other way around.” The protection of local civilian lives is also a task world powers should focus on more, according to the report.
The report also suggests that NATO and the EU should seek mutual assistance agreements with neighboring states on non-conventional threats such as large-scale terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
Formation of a European intelligence agency that will provide early tip-offs regarding cyber and energy security threats and which will also assist the EU in its military operations is another recommendations.
Other ideas to be presented to NATO and EU officials include the creation of a European Security Academy where civilian and military staff not only from member states but also from a broad range of other countries can learn to work together for global and regional security during their studies and the establishment of an EU scarce natural resources inventory to be used for posterity.
The experts who contributed to the online discussion included high-profile politicians as well as top-ranking officers.
The comprehensive report is available at : http://www.securitydefenceagenda.org/Publications/tabid/592/Default.aspx
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