For An Alternative to Imperialist Globalisation, War and Occupation

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For An Alternative to Imperialist Globalisation, War and Occupation

NATO Summit Prepares for Greater Military Intervention throughout the World

US imperialist chieftain, President George W Bush, is to spend the next five days trying to build a new consensus among the leaders of the EU and NATO after the break-down of this consensus prior to the US-British occupation of Iraq.

The break-down of this consensus presented the world with an extremely dangerous situation, a slide into a new disequilibrium, which only the world’s people can stem. This period of imperialist globalisation, war and occupation must be answered by the struggle of the people to build the alternative, to transform society by tackling the global and national crises it faces.

President Bush travels to Ireland on Saturday to discuss such issues as Iraq, the Middle East and trans-Atlantic economic ties with top officials of the European Union. Ireland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is hosting Bush at a remote castle in Co Clare in the west of Ireland. Nevertheless, thousands of people who oppose the US-led occupation of Iraq will protest against Bush.

Next Monday and Tuesday, heads of state and top military officials from 26 countries are scheduled to meet in Istanbul for a NATO summit expected to focus on the fraudulent "transfer of sovereignty" in Iraq, as well as the expansion of the aggressive military alliance's force in Afghanistan. Bush and Blair are expected to push for an expansion of NATO’s role in Iraq. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that the UN Security Council resolution supporting the Baghdad government may pave the way for this expansion in NATO’s role.

This signals greater violence, repression and destruction not only for Iraq but in the Middle East, Europe and globally. Humanity in opposition is fighting for a new global order that is established in favour of the working class and people, in which the national, collective and human rights of all are guaranteed.

The new NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, delivered a keynote speech at the Royal United Service Institute in London last week, ahead of the NATO Summit meeting due to take place in Istanbul from June 28-29.

The agenda of this year’s summit of the warmongering North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will focus on efforts by the 26 member countries, led by the US imperialism and the big powers, to modernise NATO as part of the declared aim of "projecting stability" around the world. In the words of the British government, NATO must further develop its capacity to be an "exporter of security". At the Istanbul Summit therefore, the emphasis will be on strengthening NATO’s role in the Balkans, the Mediterranean and in Afghanistan, where it is planned that NATO forces will be soon deployed throughout the entire country. NATO’s expanding global role necessitates developing even stronger relations with its partners, particularly those countries in central Asia that were formerly republics within the Soviet Union and are now members of the so-called Partnership for Peace. There will also be greater efforts to work closely with the seven countries that are part of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue, such as Israel, Jordan, and several North African countries including Egypt and Tunisia.

In his speech the Secretary General of NATO outlined some of the changes that he believes are necessary if NATO is to be transformed to fulfil its global role. According to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, "the demand for NATO is likely to increase not diminish in the future. NATO will be called upon by the international community to be a peacemaker, peacekeeper, and the provider of security and stability". NATO’s new mission of "projecting stability" requires deploying military forces far from the borders of its members and so one of the key issues the Istanbul Summit will discuss is how to finance and coordinate such military operations, in short how to re-organise the armed forces of members states so that they can be deployed in the interests of the big powers. A key consideration here is how to make sure that the cost of financing military intervention is not borne by the big powers.

The new NATO Secretary General’s vision of NATO’s future role is not dissimilar to that presented by the British government. Only last month Baroness Symons, the Foreign Office minister with responsibility for NATO, made a speech at the same venue in which she emphasized that NATO now has a global remit to counter "international terrorism". Baroness Symons also stressed the need to transform NATO’s decision-making process, so that it can respond more rapidly; the need to find new ways to generate the financial and other resources necessary for greater military intervention around the world; and the need for stronger relations with NATO’s partners.

The NATO Summit in Istanbul is being presented as part of the modernisation and transformation of NATO, so that it is capable of "responding effectively to the security challenges of the 21st century". But the fact is that it remains a warmongering alliance, a tool in the hands of the big powers, headed by the US and Britain, to intervene militarily in pursuit of their economic, strategic and political aims. The fact that NATO is increasingly being welcomed and used as the military auxiliary of the UN provides even more cause for concern.

The Istanbul Summit far from "projecting stability" is part of the reactionary plans of the big powers to produce even more instability in the world. This dangerous situation requires the people’s forces to step up their struggles against NATO and for a different world in which the people are the decision makers.