WASHINGTON -- The current war between NATO and Serbia over Kosovo represents a defining moment for the Euro-Atlantic alliance. As both its largest military operation ever and its first offensive intervention, the current mission is testing NATO's resolve and the relationship between the United States and its European partners.
The current crisis will surely dominate NATO's 50th anniversary summit this weekend in Washington, an event originally planned to celebrate the alliance's half century of achievements and emphasize its relevance to the 21st century.
At the Washington summit, the allies will welcome the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland into NATO and possibly unveil a new Strategic Concept to guide the alliance into the next century.
Even before the current crisis emerged, the NATO allies faced serious questions. In addition to reaching a consensus on the alliance's future roles and missions, NATO ministers must also decide how far its geographic reach should extend beyond Europe and whether it always needs United Nations authority to act.
But it's now unlikely that any new doctrine on such issues will emerge at this summit. Instead, a case-by-case approach is a more likely compromise on these contentious matters.
The alliance, created by the April 4, 1949 Treaty of Washington and designed to defend the West from a Soviet attack, has developed into a politico-military organization whose purpose is to promote peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area and potentially beyond.
In this post-Cold War era, its future roles are likely to include crisis management and peace enforcement, activities known as non- collective defense missions. The current intervention in Kosovo is an example of this type of mission.
Most observers agree that the alliance's future credibility and authority depends on the outcome of the Kosovo crisis. If it cannot defeat Serbia and establish peace in Kosovo, its future will not be bright. As British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently said, "On its 50th birthday, NATO must prevail." The U.S. continues to lead the alliance; NATO could not have intervened in Kosovo without American military and intelligence capabilities. This has created the impression that Europe has failed to exercise leadership in Operation Allied Force.
In fact, the European allies are making a major military contribution to the current effort in Kosovo. After the United States, France has contributed the most planes and troops to the operation. Italy is the prime staging ground for allied flights in the Balkans. And the European Union is preparing to administer a post-conflict Kosovo, as proposed recently by French President Chirac. The Europeans also plan to form the bulk of a NATO, or a NATO-led, peace-keeping force, if and when there is a peace to keep in Kosovo.
NATO's current resolve contrasts sharply with its internal differences during the Bosnian crisis in 1992-95, when the alliance probably came the closest it ever has to dissolving. Europe's role in NATO's present intervention is shaped in large part by that experience and by its experience in running the civil administration of Bosnia after the Dayton Agreements.
NATO's European allies, especially France, Germany, Britain and Italy, are now keen to demonstrate that Europe has learned from its failure to act early on in Bosnia. Since the Dayton Agreement was signed, it's been NATO's European component that has made the largest military contribution to the peace implementation force in Bosnia, although U.S. generals continue to have overall command of this mission.
Today, Europe is seeking to use its involvement in this crisis to further its efforts to develop a European foreign policy centered on the EU, and assume a greater role within NATO itself. It appears that the European allies have learned two valuable lessons: -- For the foreseeable future, any large-scale military intervention in Europe will require NATO; --They must assume, through the EU and NATO, a central role in any post-Kosovo conflicts.
The key to NATO's future will be the extent to which European allies maintain their resolve in the Balkans and act over time to increase their military forces and capabilities so that they can play a larger role within the alliance. If the Europeans accomplish these objectives, the United States will need to learn to deal with Europe as an equal partner in alliance decision-making.
The ball is in Europe's court.
Louis R. Golino is a Senior Public Affairs Specialist with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress and an expert on Europe. These are his own views.