The Associated Press quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Fellow and NATOSource Director Jorge Benitez on France’s decision to invoked a never-before-used EU “mutual-defense clause” as opposed to NATO’s Article 5 in requesting assistance from other countries in the fight against ISIS:
Paris already has good backing in Syria and Iraq from NATO heavyweights of the U.S., Britain and Turkey and does not need support from smaller members.
“Paris traditionally doesn’t turn to the alliance for these types of counterterrorism missions, and it’s usually reluctant when other allies try to do it,” said Jorge Benitez, senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.
But he said he expects France to accept help from individual nations to “benefit from the interoperability and the relationship of NATO, even though the organization itself will not be involved.”