Regional alliances should, for the most part, remain regional.\u00a0 Areas of the globe can count on a number of such bodies and associations with varying degrees of heft: the Organization of American States; the Organisation of African Unity; and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.\u00a0 Only one has decided to move beyond its natural, subscribed limits, citing security and a militant basis, for its actions.<\/p>\n
On April 27, the UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, prime ministerial contender, made her claim that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization needed to be globalised.\u00a0 Her Mansion House speech<\/a> at the Lord Mayor\u2019s Easter Banquet was one of those unusually frank disclosures that abandons pretence revealing, in its place, a disturbing reality.<\/p>\n After making it clear that NATO\u2019s \u201copen door policy\u201d was \u201csacrosanct\u201d, Truss also saw security in global terms, another way of promoting a broader commitment to international mischief.\u00a0 She rejected \u201cthe false choice between Euro-Atlantic security and Indo-Pacific security.\u00a0 In the modern world we need both.\u201d\u00a0 A \u201cglobal NATO\u201d was needed.\u00a0 \u201cBy that I don\u2019t mean extending the membership to those from other regions.\u00a0 I mean that NATO must have a global outlook, ready to tackle global threats.\u201d<\/p>\n The Truss vision is a simple one, marked by nations \u201cfree\u201d and \u201cassertive and in the ascendant.\u00a0 Where freedom and democracy are strengthened through a network of economic and security partnerships.\u201d\u00a0 A \u201cNetwork of Liberty\u201d would be required to protect such a world, one that would essentially bypass the UN Security Council and institutions that \u201chave been bent out of shape so far\u201d in enabling rather than containing \u201caggression\u201d.<\/p>\n This extraordinary, aggressive embrace of neoconservative bullishness, one that trashes international institutions rather than strengthening them, was on show again in Spain.\u00a0 At NATO\u2019s summit, Truss reiterated her view that the alliance should take \u201ca global outlook protecting Indo-Pacific as well as Euro-Atlantic security\u201d.<\/p>\n The Truss position suggested less a remaking than a return to traditional, thuggish politics dressed up as objective, enduring rules.\u00a0 Free trade, that great oxymoron of governments, is seen as \u201cfair\u201d, which requires \u201cplaying by the rules.\u201d\u00a0 The makers of those rules are never mentioned.\u00a0 But she finds room to be critical of powers \u201cna\u00efve about the geopolitical power of economics\u201d, a remarkable suggestion coming from a nation responsible for the illegal export of opium to China in the nineteenth century and promoters of unequal treaties.\u00a0 \u201cWe are showing,\u201d she boasted, \u201cthat economic access is no longer a given.\u00a0 It has to be earned.\u201d<\/p>\n The Global NATO theme is not sparklingly novel, even if the Ukraine War has given impetus to its promotion and selling.\u00a0 The post-Cold War period left the alliance floundering.\u00a0 The great Satan \u2013 the Soviet Union \u2013 has ceased to exist, undercutting its raison d\u2019\u00eatre<\/em>.\u00a0 New terrain, and theatres, were needed to flex muscle and show purpose.<\/p>\n The Kosovo intervention in 1999, evangelised as a human rights security operation against genocidal Serbian forces, put the world on notice where alliance members might be going.\u00a0 NATO was again involved in enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya as the country was ushered to imminent, post-Qaddafi collapse.\u00a0 When the International Security Force (ISAF) completed its ill-fated mission in Afghanistan in 2015, NATO was again on the scene.<\/p>\n In the organisation\u2019s Strategic Concept<\/a> document released at the end of June, the Euro-Atlantic dimension, certainly regarding the Ukraine conflict and Russia\u2019s role, comes in for special mention. But room, and disapproval, is also made for China.\u00a0 \u201cThe People\u2019s Republic of China\u2019s (PRC) stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values.\u201d<\/p>\n A number of \u201cpolitical, economic and military tools\u201d had been used to increase Beijing\u2019s \u201cglobal footprint and project power\u201d, all done in a manner distinctly not transparent.\u00a0 The security of allies had been challenged by \u201cmalicious hybrid and cyber operations\u201d, along with \u201cconfrontational rhetoric and disinformation\u201d.\u00a0 Of deep concern was the deepening relationship between Moscow and Beijing, \u201cand their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order\u201d which ran \u201ccounter to our values and interests.\u201d<\/p>\n The alliance\u2019s recent self-inflation has led to curious developments.\u00a0 Australia\u2019s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been pushing Canberra ever closer towards NATO, a process that has been ongoing for some years. \u00a0At the alliance\u2019s public forum in Madrid, Albanese used<\/a> China\u2019s \u201ceconomic coercion\u201d against Australia as a noisy platform while decrying Beijing\u2019s encroachments into areas that had been the playground, and in some cases plaything, of Western powers.\u00a0 \u201cJust as Russia seeks to recreate a Russian or Soviet empire, the Chinese government is seeking friends, whether it be [\u2026] through economic support to build up alliances to undermine what has historically been the Western alliance in places like the Indo-Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n At a press conference<\/a> held at Madrid\u2019s Torrejon Air Base, the Australian prime minister felt certain that \u201cNATO members know that China is more forward leaning in our region.\u201d\u00a0 Beijing had levelled sanctions not only against Canberra but had proven to \u201cbe more aggressive in its stance in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n Australian pundits on the security circuit are warmed<\/a> by the visit, seeing a chance to point NATO\u2019s interest in the direction of China\u2019s ambition in the Indo-Pacific.\u00a0 Just as Norwegian historian Geir Lundestad described Washington\u2019s Cold War involvement in Western Europe as an empire by invitation, NATO, or some bit of it, is being envisaged as an invitee in regions far beyond its traditional scope.\u00a0 None of this will do much to encourage the prospects for stability while leaving every chance for further conflict.<\/p>\n The post Going Global with NATO<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Regional alliances should, for the most part, remain regional.\u00a0 Areas of the globe can count on a number of such bodies and associations with varying degrees of heft: the Organization of American States; the Organisation of African Unity; and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.\u00a0 Only one has decided to move beyond its natural, subscribed [\u2026]<\/p>\n The post Going Global with NATO<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,190,712,1,200],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":771832,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771253\/revisions\/771832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}