From NATO/IMS: NATO is, and must continue to be, a learning organisation. It has learned enormously from its various operations, starting in 1995 with IFOR, the start of our Balkans operations. Indeed, more than any other aspect it is our operations and missions that have had, and will continue to have, the most impact on the direction of the Alliance. Due to its sheer size, and complexity, our operation in Afghanistan is the most dominant example…

The Level of Ambition that will be expressed in the New Strategic Concept will need to have due regard for the resourcing issue, especially in light of growing financial constraints. The need for collective defence against a residual conventional threat has not disappeared, and whilst new threats have emerged, NATO must be capable of dealing with all of them, and be resourced to do so. Such threats in a globalised world put a particular emphasis on capabilities that are expeditionary in nature. Ultimately, whilst the Military can define the resources needed to achieve the desired capabilities, it is only the Politicians that can ensure that those capabilities are adequately resourced. In other words, the New Strategic Concept must be resource aware, and the ambitions set for NATO (the collective defence and collective security role) will need to be consistent and coherent with the resources that our political masters make available to underpin them. If this is not the case, then the New Strategic Concept would be little more that a “fairytale exercise.”

Excerpts of speech by the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Admiral Giampaolo di Paola at the NATO Defense College. (photo: Italian Ministry of Defense)