THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 15, 1995 TAG: 9509150507
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
An architect of U.S. foreign policy in the closing years of the Cold War said Thursday that momentum toward a solution of the bloody Yugoslav civil war is proof the United States still has a leading role to play in European affairs.
Peter Rodman, who held national security jobs in the past four Republican administrations, led off the first in a series of roundtable discussions on the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and trans-Atlantic relations. The meetings were organized by the graduate program in international studies at Old Dominion University.
As Rodman spoke, NATO declared a temporary halt to its two-week bombing campaign over Bosnia; a U.S. diplomat was reported close to an agreement on removing the Serb guns encircling the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
In an interview, Rodman said he supported the NATO air strikes as leverage for diplomatic efforts.
``The diplomacy wasn't going to work without leverage,'' he said. ``For two years, the American role was basically passive, and we encouraged these sort of dinky airstrikes once in awhile, which wasn't that effective anyway.
``It proves once again that once the Americans come in and take charge, they can bring the allies along. Coherence appears only when America takes a lead role.''
Still, Rodman said, he doesn't think the Bosnia operation, which involved hundreds of bombing runs from Norfolk-based aircraft carriers in the Adriatic Sea, should be seen as a model for NATO's role in the emerging European order.
``I'm not sure Bosnia is what NATO is for,'' he said. ``I think NATO got sucked into it. They thought it was an opportunity to show that NATO could do a new thing in a new era. . . .
``I don't think it is the proper role, but I think we're stuck with this enterprise, and the stakes are now high and NATO has a lot riding on this.''
Rodman dismissed Russia's outburst this week accusing the Western alliance of genocide against the Bosnian Serbs. The Russians said the NATO bombing runs had killed 800 and wounded more than 2,000 civilians, and they accused NATO of trying to turn Bosnia into a ``testing ground'' for world domination.
``It is humiliating to Russia to have all this going on at their doorstep without their involvement or against their wishes,'' Rodman said. ``They're just expressing frustration that they're not really influencing what's going on.''
Rodman is a leading proponent of expanding NATO to include the central and eastern European nations that were once part of the Soviet bloc. But he draws the line at allowing Russia into the alliance. In fact, he sees the need to counterbalance Russian military might as a central reason for NATO's continued existence - just as it was during the Cold War.
``Russia is not a part of the West,'' he said. ``Russia is Russia. It's always been there. It's always been a clumsy, unpredictable element in European politics.
``Right now, the conditions exist for a very benign relationship between Russia and the West. . . . But look at a map. Russia is disproportionately big, and one of the functions of NATO is to be a counterweight.''
A dissenting note was sounded by Regina Karp, director of ODU's international studies program.
The debate over expanding NATO to Russia's borders is ``polarizing'' and ``paralyzing our imagination as to what might be possible'' in fashioning a more peaceful, secure world from the ashes of the Cold War, Karp said.
``When I see the way that Russia is treated in this debate, I get scared,'' she said. ``Much of what has been achieved in the last five years has been undertaken with Russian cooperation. . . . For example, German reunification, the peaceful withdrawal of Soviet and Russian forces from eastern Europe and the Baltics . . . the START I and hopefully the START II treaties.
``We have achieved much with Russia. Are we willing to jeopardize it by a non-existent security rationale to bring central and eastern Europe into NATO?'' ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON
Staff
Peter Rodman led the first roundtable discussion on the future of
NATO and trans-Atlantic relations Thursday at ODU.
by CNB