From Reuters: NATO’s secretary general said on Monday he regretted failing to get more member states to give up national ‘caveats’ that mean they won’t carry out dangerous missions in places such as Afghanistan.

Speaking to foreign policy experts before he leaves his post next week after 5-1/2 years, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he would have liked to have done more to get all NATO member states contributing in equal measure to the alliance’s operations.

“I have tried to be as proactive as I could to lift caveats, as we call them in our jargon — the limitation on the use of force,” he told an audience at Chatham House. “I have had some success, but I would have liked to be more successful.”