Int’l Security Summit Misses HLS Opportunity
As described on this blog before, the U.S. can better engage multilateral entities, such as NATO, ASEAN, and the EU, to work with important countries in pursuit of the shared interest in combating terrorism and protecting civilian populations.
In researching further details of what NATO has to offer, I decided to highlight here the Alliance’s Partnership Action Plan against Terrorism (PAP-T). The Partnership Action Plan against Terrorism deserves attention by this year’s NATO Summit, taking place this week in Hungary. The PAP-T involves nearly forty countries through NATO’s Partnership for Peace program and NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue. Participating countries agree on the level of their participation individually with NATO. PAP-T facilitates intelligence sharing and cooperation in areas such as border security, terrorism-related training and exercises, the development of capabilities for defense against terrorist attacks and for managing the consequences of attacks. The PAP-T takes a pragmatic approach and focuses on:
Consultations and information sharing
Operations and exercises
Assisting Partners’ efforts against terrorism
Targeting terrorist finances
Civil emergency planning
Cooperating with other international organizations
Science and environment
With the heads of State and Government from the 26 NATO nations, 24 Partners, and other representatives from international institutions meeting in Bucharest this week to discuss NATO enlargement and operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo as part of NATO’s biannual summit, the dearth of counterterrorism issues on the agenda is worth noting. Readers are encouraged to send in any comments with details about the Summit that actually do address this topic.