For the complete report from The Economist click on this link
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer out - A contest to lead NATO - Who can unite the allies? -
NATO’s hot war, in Afghanistan, is going badly and the alliance is at odds over further expansion. Relations with its neighbor in Brussels, the European Union, are paralyzed even though many countries are members of both. Poland’s foreign (and ex-defense) minister, Radek Sikorski, is an early front-runner. Another eastern possibility is Solomon Passy, the Trabant-driving former foreign minister of Bulgaria. Many allies want a secretary-general with political clout, “somebody whose phone calls will be answered when he calls European leaders”, as a NATO insider puts it. Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s has this clout. As Danish prime minister since 2001, he sent his country’s troops to serve alongside American ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Mr Fogh Rasmussen is thought to be more interested in becoming the EU’s first permanent president, if that position ever materializes.Two Canadian possibilities are Peter MacKay and John Manley, defense and former foreign ministers respectively. One contender is Britain’s soft-spoken former defense secretary, Des Browne. But Britain is detested by jihadists even more than Denmark.A French candidate might seal that country’s re-entry into NATO’s military structure, which will be confirmed at the April summit. Some NATO insiders think the best way to stop Berlin from becoming the new Paris might be to appoint a senior German with solid pro-American credentials to NATO’s top job—in effect, not Germany’s man at NATO, but NATO’s man for Germany?
Note EU-Digest Among all the soul searching that is being done about NATO maybe some serious thought should also be given to replace the NATO structure by a European Defense Alliance which includes Russia as a full member? Providing more of a focus on European strategic interests but nevertheless in close cooperation with the US military establishment.
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