A New, Expansive Direction for NATO

The champagne is on ice in the defense ministries of 10 Eastern European countries set to join the NATO security alliance this Fall.

At a meeting in Riga, Latvia this weekend, the 10 heads of state will once again stress to current NATO members their desire to join the North Atlantic defense alliance this November. Many see the two-day summit as a formality, as almost all of the 10 nations are set to be a lock when current NATO members vote on expansion in Prague November 21-22.

"We seek a new Europe that has buried its historic tensions and is prepared to meet global challenges beyond Europe’s borders," US President George W. Bush told the assembled group per video.

The alliance’s expansion, the result of two years of negotiations, has grown in importance since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Proponents see the expansion as modernizing the Cold War alliance into an effective terrorist-fighting organization.

"New members will help improve NATO’s capabilities," Bush told the gathering.

Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria all look to have excellent chances at getting into NATO. Macedonia and Albania are teetering on the edge because of continued domestic instability.

Searching for a new role

To enter into the alliance, candidate countries have to exhibit a commitment to democracy and push through economic and military reforms required by NATO. This weekend, talk is expected to focus on freedom of the press, corruption and fighting anti-Semitism, problems that still persist in many of the candidate countries.

"We’re not exactly popping the champagne bottles yet, but to some extent we’re celebrating what will be an important historical event," Latvian Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins said in the Washington Post.

The expansion comes at a time when NATO is still searching for its new role more than a decade after the collapse of its Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union. The alliance came under criticism after disastrous and ineffective bombing campaigns in Yugoslavia in 1999 and revelations that it was unequipped to fight the wars of the 21st century.

At a recent NATO meeting, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged NATO to close the technology gap and equip itself to fight the nuclear, chemical and biological threats of today.

Some European politicians, including German chancellor challenger Edmund Stoiber, have advocated an increase in defense budget spending to close that gap.

Stabilizing all the way to Russia’s front door

Though the expansion won’t bring in massive or particularly advanced armies, proponents say it will stabilize a still volatile region. Washington is behind plans that would bring in funding to help countries modernize their armies and avoid depending on US military power to solve European conflicts.

Russia, which joined NATO as a non-voting member in May, remains wary of the eastward expansion, which will create a military alliance that rubs up against its borders.