Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 12, 1994 TAG: 9401120148
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL PUTZEL BOSTON GLOBE
DATELINE: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM LENGTH: Medium
Christopher's statement constituted an unusual acknowledgement by a top U.S. official that Washington's leadership of the great alliance had declined. The mere fact that the secretary of state felt compelled to assert Clinton's control raised questions about America's true standing as the 16-nation military alliance struggles to define its role when it has no clear adversary to unite against.
"This was President Clinton's summit," Christopher said. "He called the summit. He developed the three initiatives, which were enthusiastically and unanimously endorsed."
Christopher did not mention that much of the meeting was devoted to Bosnia, a subject the Clinton administration had hoped to gloss over but which the French and British insisted on raising.
Britain and France, which last year frustrated Clinton's plan to lift the arms embargo against Bosnian Muslims and launch NATO air strikes to suppress Serbian gunners around Sarajevo, once again are flexing their newfound muscles in the alliance.
The United States did, indeed, propose the "Partnership for Peace," a plan to reach out to former adversaries in the east with an offer of limited NATO membership. But the summit may be better remembered for structural changes the leaders approved that give Europe far more independence that it has ever had to use NATO in Europe's own interest when the United States prefers not to get involved.
NATO Secretary-General Manfred Woerner described the decision to let member states use NATO troops and equipment for special missions without full cooperation of all members on both sides of the Atlantic as a "rebalancing" of the alliance.
There can be little doubt that as the European allies gain weight on their side of the fulcrum, the United States loses some of the clout by which it has dominated the partnership since its inception after World War II.
"The rebalancing will strengthen our alliance, not weaken it," Woerner said at the close of the summit Tuesday. "It will not lead to any disengagement of the United States. On the contrary."
But U.S. officials acknowledge that there may be instances, as NATO develops its newly defined role of crisis management and keeping peace, when the Europeans choose to commit troops to endeavors in which the United States and Canada have no real interest. Washington blocked consideration of any such independent action for two decades, insisting that NATO was a creature of the whole and must act only as a single unit.
In the future, the Europeans may operate on their own in what the alliance is calling "combined joint task forces" that actually combine only selected European units and may operate jointly with other, non-NATO members, such as prospective East European "partners."
When the adversary was a monolithic superpower capable of annihilating NATO partners on both sides of the Atlantic, no one questioned that the United States - the only NATO member capable of retaliating with equally devastating power - was first among equals in the alliance.
by CNB