Nato must change, demands US senator
Nato must adapt to play a bigger role in the fight against global terrorism or risk becoming marginalised, an influential US politician warned today.
‘‘If Nato does not help tackle the most pressing security threat to our countries today ... it will cease to be the premier alliance it has been and will become increasingly marginal,’’ Republican Senator Richard Lugar said in a speech to be delivered at Brussels conference organised by the US mission to Nato.
Lugar, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the alliance had to ‘‘fundamentally rethink its role in the world in the wake of September 11.’’
He said the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation should draw up a list of nations with weapons of mass destruction, or the materials to develop them, and demand they be made secure and open to international verification.
If such countries resist or make their territories available to terrorists, Nato should be prepared to use force against them.
‘‘Together we must keep the world’s most dangerous technologies out of the hands of the world’s most dangerous people,’’ Lugar said.
He also called on European members of the 19 nation alliance to develop the military capacity to help the US carry the defence burden and said Nato should be ‘‘retooled’’ to better handle threats from around the world.
‘‘In a world in which terrorist threats can be planned in Germany, financed in Asia, and carried out in the United States, old distinctions between ’in’ and ’out of area’ have become utterly meaningless,’’ he said.
‘‘Indeed, given the global nature of terrorism, boundaries and other geographical distinctions are without relevance.’’
