NATO's New Strategic Concept Outlines Cyber Threats, Civilian Efforts

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen waves the new 11-page Strategic Concept of the Alliance at a press conference in Lisbon. EPA/BGNES

Leaders of the 28 NATO member states have approved the much-anticipated new Strategic Concept of the Alliance at a summit in Lisbon, the most important NATO forum since the Bucharest Summit of April 2008.

"Here you have NATO's road map for the next 10 years: our new strategic concept has just been adopted by the heads of state and government," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told journalists in Lisbon at a news conference.

"This summit will go down in NATO history. The strategic concept is clear and open, and it shows that we are all working on the same foundation," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, as cited by DPA.

NATO's previous Strategic Concept was adopted in 1999, shortly before the attacks of 9/11, 2001, changed the global landscape and ushered into US interventions in Afghanistan since 2001 (subsequently turned into a NATO-led international mission), and in Iraq since 2003.

The 11-page new Strategic Concept is supposed to guide NATO as they reform their armed forces and plan joint operations. It restates the Alliance's commitment for each member state to defend all the others, but calls on it to improve its defenses against new threats such as cyberattacks.

The new concept, which was drafted by a group of experts led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, declares that the Alliance must improve its cooperation with 'any nations and relevant organizations across the globe that share our interest in peaceful international relations.' The concept does not name any countries, but in previous speeches Rasmussen has specified Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, as well as the United Nations, World Bank and European Union.

NATO's new Strategic Concept does mention that the EU is a "unique and essential partner for NATO" but only commits the alliance to making "our contribution to create more favourable circumstances" for cooperation. The working out of a more clear-cut formula between NATO and the EU has been hindered because Turkey, a NATO member, and Cyprus, an EU member, have long vetoed cooperation over their long-standing conflict.

For the first time in the history of the Alliance, the NATO Strategic Concept provides for establishing a permanent force designed to train security forces in third countries. The other novelty is the stipulated creation of an "appropriate but modest civilian crisis management capability" work with civilian factors such as the EU and the UN.

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