Name? Jens Stoltenberg
Westphalian identity? Norwegian
Age? 61
Why is he in the news? As you’ll remember from last week, Stoltenberg is the current Secretary-General of NATO who is likely to gain importance once the Biden administration takes office. As a start into the post-Trump era, Stoltenberg requested a high-level report on NATO’s next 10 years which was released yesterday before the alliance’s foreign ministers meeting.
Why do we care? Whether we call NATO foreign subsidies for the US weapons industry or not. The treaty organisation is the strongest military alliance in the world and very impactful.
Why should you care? Odds are, you’re in the same mindset as Macron in believing that NATO is effectively “brain dead.” If that is your opinion of the alliance, then you should care about this report and its potential to revive NATO. If you are on the other end of the spectrum and believe NATO to be strategically important, then you should also care about the report as it highlights the error of your ways.
Who else cares? Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. Much of the debate surrounding the report and the foreign ministers meeting centres on Turkey’s affairs with NATO and non-NATO members (aka Greece, Russia, Syria, Libya, China, etc.). As a result, Turkey was virtually isolated among the alliance’s 30 members after getting into a dispute with US Secretary of State Pompeo over its relationship with Russia; not exactly progressing towards the report’s hopes for greater political unity…
Any further comments? NATO has spent the last two decades finding purpose in Afghanistan but with US interest falling, troops departing, and alliance infighting, it’s been in search of a new direction. The report published yesterday confirms that NATO will need to pivot externally towards Asia and internally towards cooperation. In order to successfully combat China’s economic, political and military rise, NATO members will need to adapt, evolve and communicate far faster than they are now. Good luck with that Stoltenberg…
