NATO wants to expand power to "fight global warming"

Associated Press
Tuesday, June 3, 2008

BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO must expand its role in the coming decade to prepare for new threats provoked by the impact of global warming, energy shortages and the spread of nuclear technology, the alliance's top diplomat warned Tuesday.

Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance must look beyond the day-to-day running of its operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo and focus on longer-term threats to its 26 members

"I see no choice but to scan the strategic horizon much more thoroughly," he told a conference of security experts.

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He listed five emerging threats that allied leaders will need to confront as they shape the alliance's future at NATO's 60th anniversary summit on the Franco-German border next year:

the growing number of failed states that can provide havens for terrorists or organized crime
the power of "non-state actors" such as terrorists, or cyber criminals
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction that could be exacerbated by the expanding use of peaceful nuclear energy
risks of instability linked to scarce energy sources.
dangers that climate change is increasing competition over water and other resources, weakening fragile states and provoking waves of migration.
"Climate change could confront us with a whole range of unpleasant developments — developments which no single nation state has the power to contain," he warned.

In response, NATO needs not only to modernize its defense system and intelligence sharing but also to boost its political role to allow allies to forge speedy and united responses to looming crises. They should also forge closer ties to other organizations such as the United Nations and European Union, as well as "partner nations" such as Russia, he said.

However, the difficulties of working with Moscow were apparent at the Security and Defense Agenda conference, where Russia's ambassador denounced NATO's eastward expansion plans and Western policy toward Kosovo.

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