Written by: Tamara Lorincz

At the recent Madrid Summit, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) released its new strategic concept. It is the first update of the transatlantic alliance’s principles and purpose in twelve years.

The NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called it the most significant transformation of the alliance since the end of the Cold War. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken described it as “the blueprint for how we will approach the world together.”

All thirty members the alliance including Canada approved NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept. It will profoundly influence Canadian foreign and defence policies over the next decade.

It’s a dangerous neocolonial plan to preserve Western domination through greater militarism and division. As the 13-page concept explains, the Euro-Atlantic alliance is preparing for combat and competition in a “contested and unpredictable world.”

With a “360-degree approach” to defence and deterrence, NATO is extending its operating domains beyond land, air and sea to information, cyber and space. Allies will bolster their interoperability and capabilities for “high-intensity, multi-domain warfighting.” NATO’s rapid reaction force will increase from 40,000 to 300,000 troops and more ammunition will be pre-positioned in Eastern Europe.

At a press conference in Madrid, Defence Minister Anand announced that Canada will bolster its troops leading NATO’s battle group in Latvia. Prime Minister Trudeau said Canada is supplying more weapons to Ukraine including sniper rifles, ammunition, drone cameras, and armoured vehicles to continue the fight against Russia “for as long as it takes.”

However, allies’ continued arms exports to Ukraine risk further escalation and a catastrophic nuclear exchange with Russia. Like the 2010 Strategic Concept, the current one states that nuclear weapons are NATO’s “supreme guarantee of security,” but they are doing the exact opposite. They are causing grave instability.

Nuclear-armed members, the U.S., the United Kingdom and France, are modernizing their arsenals and the new NATO-controlled Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defence systems in Poland and Romania enable a first-strike attack that threatens Russia.

There was no mention in the concept or at the summit of any measures for arms control, non-proliferation or disarmament. Moreover, in Madrid, allies did not call for de-escalation, a ceasefire or a negotiated resolution to end war that is raging in Ukraine.

It is a war that was largely instigated by NATO’s “foolish” expansion as Dr. John Mearsheimer, international relations expert at the University of Chicago and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, economist at the University of Columbia, have argued. Sachs further explained how the neoconservatives in Washington planned and pushed NATO expansion in Ukraine as a way to maintain U.S. hegemony against both Russia and China.

Ominously, the Strategic Concept describes how the alliance will extend beyond the Euro-Atlantic region into the Indo-Pacific. NATO has put China directly in its cross-hairs. For the first time, the leaders from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea attended a NATO Summit and described China as “aggressive with coercive policies” and as a “strategic competitor.”

Africa and the Middle East are also identified as regions where NATO will have a greater presence to counter “terrorism”. However, the subtext is that NATO will challenge China in both regions to undermine its Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure program to help poor countries develop and improve trade with Asia.

Cynically, the concept explains how violence in Africa and Middle East is contributing to “forced displacement, fuelling human trafficking and irregular migration” with no acknowledgement that it is NATO’s devastating wars in Libya and Afghanistan that have caused these migration crises.

There are also undertones of racism in NATO’s plan to protect its “southern flank.” Allies like France, Spain, Italy and Greece have been working hard to keep Africans who are desperately crossing the Mediterranean Sea out of Europe. Since NATO’s destruction of Libya, a country that was once one of the wealthiest on the continent, thousands of refugees have attempted to cross the sea.

Tragically, many have drowned, have been deported back to Africa or have languished in border camps. In April, 90 Libyan migrants drowned from an overcrowded boat in the Mediterranean. In June, 23 African men died at the Melilla-Morocco border in the Spanish enclave of North Africa. NATO conveniently ignores the humanitarian crises, takes no responsibility and has faced no accountability.

In its Strategic Concept, NATO asserts, “We remain steadfast in our resolve to protect our one billion citizens.” This is grossly elitist and exclusionary. The citizens in NATO’s thirty member states are predominately white, wealthy largely from the exploitation of the Global South and account for only 12% of the global population. For NATO, the remaining six billion poor people in developing countries don’t matter.

At the Summit in Madrid, NATO formally invited neutral countries, Sweden and Finland, which share a maritime and a land border respectively with Russia, to join the alliance aggravating Moscow. Putin cautioned Sweden and Finland against installing any NATO bases in their countries, because it would require a symmetric build up on the Russian side. The expansion of NATO to these northern European countries risks an arms race and militarizes the Baltic Sea, which is already one of the most polluted bodies of water.

Regrettably, Finland’s accession to the alliance also destroys the regional security and cooperation architecture that had been carefully built since the 1975 Helsinki Final Act. The Act was an important, inclusive agreement between the European countries and the Soviet Union to reduce tensions during the Cold War and was signed in the Finnish capital. NATO’s enticement to Finland and Sweden to join the alliance renews these Cold War tensions with Russia.

This globalization of NATO will be costly and carbon-intensive. At the summit, allies agreed to invest more in NATO’s common fund and in their military budgets to meet or exceed the 2% GDP target. Yet, as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has reported, the thirty allies account for 60% of the $2 trillion USD annual global military expenditures. To maintain interoperability, allies are buying new energy-inefficient, fossil-fuel powered weapons systems like the F-35 fighter jets and armoured combat vehicles.

NATO’s latest defence expenditures report shows that Canada is sixth highest among all allies at $35 billion CAD for military spending in 2022, which is a 75% increase since 2014. This amount is 1.27% of GDP, which is below the 2% target. Canada’s federal budget this year boosted military by $8 billion and has committed to buy the F-35. According to Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report, Canada’s Military Expenditure and the NATO 2% Spending Target, military spending will rise to $51 billion annually by 2027.

The U.S., which dominates NATO, will have a record high defense budget this year. Congress has added even more to Biden’s Pentagon budget bringing it to $839 billion. The beneficiary of these ballooning budgets is the military-industrial complex.

NATO’s new Strategic Concept is not a plan for “international peace and security”; it’s a plan to maintain the West’s power and wealth through armed force and the suppression of other countries. It will divert public funds away from needed social programs like housing and healthcare to the military and arms manufacturers.

Most troubling, NATO’s plan over the next decade will derail the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement climate targets as the Euro-Atlantic allies confront other countries instead of cooperate with them on global challenges. The West needs to work collaboratively with Russia and China on the climate emergency, the pandemic and poverty.

Canada does not have to follow NATO’s dangerous plan; there are peaceful alternatives. Last year, the United Nations released a significant report Our Common Agenda. Its aim is to “re-embrace global solidarity” and strengthen the UN’s multilateral system that includes all 193 members states. Our Common Agenda reconceptualizes security as human security through the SDGS, not the way that NATO’s Strategic Concept does as militarized security.

Canadians should reject NATO’s new strategic concept and demand Canada withdraw from this war-ridden alliance.

Editor’s note: The Canada Files has spent more than two years doing critical investigative reporting on Canada's imperialist foreign policy. We’ve established a clear track record of exposing the truth Canada's political establishment hides from you. There's so much more we can do, but only with your financial support.

When TCF's monthly support reaches $1250 CAD per month, up from $718 per month at present, we'll introduce the #uponfurtherinvestigation initiative! Check out this thread for more details.

Please consider setting up a monthly or annual donation through Donorbox.

Tamara Lorincz is a PhD candidate at Balsillie School of International Affairs in Wilfrid Laurier University, and a researcher for Science for Peace.

More Articles

Featured