Alphen, The Netherlands. 23 July.
NATO must contend with two competing and contending inner-realities: a
schism in Alliance strategic culture and concept, driven by deepening divisions
over the world view and the future of the Euro; and the austerity-driven need for
shrinking armed forces to work ever more closely together in a world in which
the balance of power is tipping against the West. It will not be an easy balance to
strike. Forever in search of said new
balance NATO has launched the Connected Forces Initiative or CFI. However, like most things NATO whilst the idea
is good real questions remain as to the extent the member nations will really grip
the challenge. The bottom-line is this; the
only way CFI can succeed is to be radical in both thought and act. In effect, CFI is seeking what I call ‘organic
jointness’; forces that not only act as one, but think as one.
The Oxford English Dictionary describes “organic” as "an
organised structure within a cell". Today that means an entirely new way
of thinking about the relationship between the world, armed forces, technology,
the societies they serves and. above all, ideas. The
specific challenge concerns how small military 'producers' meet their security
and defence obligations in a very large and unstable 'market' in which the
defining feature is and will be friction and turbulence and the defining factor
cost.
'Connectivity' is the key. Indeed, ‘connectivity’ must
become NATO’s driving mantra because the force most connected will be the force
most likely to strike a balance between effectiveness and efficiency. However, this in turn will require a complete
change in mind-set amongst political and military leaders, particularly in
Europe. European armed forces can no
longer compete on mass and quantity and NATO can thus no longer simply flood
the ‘market’. Rather, the Alliance needs
to be able to make intelligent choices and identify critical points in the ‘market’
over which it can and must exert influence given challenges that will range
from state failure to state conflict and all that lurks in between.
In Europe a defence planning Rubicon has been
crossed and yet too many military leaders talk as though this is a temporary blip before their return to greatness. Indeed, given cuts to NATO Europe
forces that is on average some 25% since 2008 European armed forces no longer
have the size to 'think' as separate countries, let alone act as separate
services. To be properly connected armed
forces will need a radical, unified concept of how best to a) exploit the five
dimensions of twenty-first military effect - air, land, sea, cyber and space;
b) recognise that a new inner-relationship must be sought with the US; and c) inject
some real meaning into the woeful non-relationship with the EU. That will require a NATO that can re-conceive of
itself as a critical strategic node or hub at the core of a web of real strategic partnerships the world over with NATO Standards which promote
effective ways of working acting as the Alliance’s core ‘product’. This will be no easy task for an Alliance
that still remains too much of a self-licking lollipop.
The connectivity revolution must start within
the Alliance. Critically, new thinking
will be needed if the 'corporate memory' that has been built up so painfully over
the past decade is to be properly exploited rather than shelved as
lessons-learned and then lost. To that end NATO must far better, scientifically
and systematically exploit exercising, training and education. Exercising is a key but woefully
ill-exploited change agent. Too often
the testing of concepts, experimentation and the taking of risk it implies is
avoided in favour of of the formulaic and disconnected rehashing of the
already known.
However, it is the connectedness of minds that will
define CFI. Transformed defence
education is pivotal to CFI. Indeed,
for CFI to work there must be a much tighter relationship between the
knowledge base, research, defence education and action based on an
Alliance-wide defence education concept that both empowers the learner and ends
the box-ticking culture that so bedevils defence academies. In other words, learning must also become outcomes-based,
life-long and enduring based on Alliance-wide education standards.
Organic Jointness is thus at the heart of the Connected
Forces Initiative built on the principle of connectivity. The
realisation of such a goal will demand a radical commitment
to force quality that goes way beyond the rehearsed rhetoric of past NATO
initiatives. Things really are different
now and unless the Alliance actively promotes the rigorous development of comparative
advantage in thinking, concepts, technology and, above all, people it really
will in time fade into irrelevance.
NATO: connected
forces, connected minds.
Julian
Lindley-French
