Doubtful vista. A French soldier in Afghanistan (AFP)

A new chief for a shaky alliance

On August 1st, former Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen was formally invested as NATO’s new secretary general, declaring that resolving the war in Afghanistan would be his main priority. But what, wonders the European press, is the outlook for the western alliance, blighted by in-fighting and seemingly with no end in sight to its battle against a resurgent Taliban?

Published on 3 August 2009 at 15:07
Doubtful vista. A French soldier in Afghanistan (AFP)

The war in Afghanistan is to be the “top priority” of NATO’s new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Speaking to Copenhagen daily Politiken on the eve of his appointment at the stewardship of the western alliance, the former Danish prime-minister recognises that security in certain parts of Afghanistan is not “absolutely satisfactory” but that he intends “to divide rebel groups by negociating peace agreements with selected groups attached to the Taliban.”

His sentiments echo those recently expressed by British foreign secretary David Miliband and no doubt will be greeted by certain sections of the British press, which has reacted with dismay to this weekend’s report of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. After a month which has seen no less than 22 British casualties in Afghanistan, the paper entitled Global Security: Afghanistan and Pakistan, as relayed by the Observer, reports that the British army is “on an ill-defined mission undermined by unrealistic planning and lack of manpower.” Remarks that have led Brigadier Allan Mallinson in The Daily Telegraph to thunder that England is “overgrown with peace” and needs to “steel itself” to the fact that “we are at war, and that we are not funding it adequately.”

But under what conditions is this war to be fought? Hailing Rasmussen’s appointment, Belgian daily De Standaard cheerfully observes that he should benefit from “an atmosphere several times superior to that which reigned when his predecessor assumed his functions, so much has the election of Barack Obama lightened the transatlantic skies” The Belgian daily is much reassured by the Strasbourg-Kehl joint declaration of April, in which the members of NATO renewed vows in seeking to achieve shared goals in a time of “unconventional warfare”.

While for De Standaard the alliance is now on an even keel, Ilana Bet El at the Guardian doesn’t seem to share in such optimism. Extending Rasmussen a “wary welcome” she looks back on the alliance’s recent past, observing that in recent years most European states decided “Nato was more or less a dying concern controlled by the US and backed by the UK, and they were not too fussed who headed it.” The situation for Rasmussen, she contends, is that he inherits a NATO damaged by “the effective rejection by the US of Nato and its members after the attacks of 9/11.” Bitterly divided over the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 the member states of NATO, in taking over operations in Afghanistan, have failed to pull together. While “there are clear attempts on both sides of the Atlantic to let bygones be bygones, there remains a fundamental mistrust between the allies compounded by Nato's archaic industrial war command and control structure – which is totally inadequate to running a modern war”.

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Elsewhere, Rasmussen’s credentials have raised doubts, with even De Standaard alluding to Denmark’s Euroscepticism and propensity for opting-outs from European treaties, and wondering whether this bodes well for European interests. In Germany, Frankfurter Rundschau is left to ask about the impact of his appointment in the Muslim world, reminding readers that Rasmussen, at the height of the controversy over the caricatures of the prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper, refused to meet with ambassadors from eleven Muslim nations, invoking the absolute freedom of the press. Which, for the Frankfurt daily, inadvertently led to the sacking of the Danish embassies in Teheran, Damascus and Beirut.

While concluding that Rasmussen will develop his diplomatic capacities, being “flexible, pragmatic and liking power”, Rundschau can not help but ironically report that one of the warmest welcomes extended him has come from the Taliban. An internet website for the Islamist movement reports that “a great enemy of the prophet” now runs the alliance. “This will ineluctably reinforce the faith of Muslims in the fight against Nato”. And thus intensify the war.

Indeed, the outlook in Afghanistan looks increasingly bleak. While Brigadier Mallinson wonders whether “the West hasn't the stomach for the fight”, the findings of the House of Commons inquiry as relayed by the Observer notes that on the ground, support for British troops has been damaged by civilian casualties. And also that a “weak, corrupt police force is driving Afghans back to the Taliban to seek justice. The main problem, however, seems to be that “the strategic threat has shifted to Pakistan,” with al-Qaida now focused on gaining access to Islamabad's nuclear arsenal. Given this, and other problems the Alliance faces, Ilana Bet –El is forced to wonder whether Rasmussen might not go down in history “as the last Nato secretary general.”

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