NATO faces challenge of changed world

The biggest challenge for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a Western military bloc set up six decades ago during the initial stages of the Cold War, is how to adapt to the ever-changing world security environment.

At the Strasbourg-Kehl summit, held on April 3-4 last year, heads of NATO member countries passed the Declaration on Alliance Security, as mandated by the previous summit, to elaborate a new Strategic Concept that would be the bloc's future guideline. NATO's earlier guideline was issued on its 50th anniversary in 1999. Last year's declaration authorized NATO secretary-general to form a high-level panel and map out the draft of the new Strategic Concept on the basis of intensive discussions with NATO member states. And accordingly, a 12-member panel, led by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, was formed.

Since last year's summit, heated discussions and debates have taken place in the international political and academic circles and in the media about NATO's new Strategic Concept. To better adapt to the changed world situations, NATO's new guideline is expected to touch upon a series of topics relevant to its orientation. It could range from how NATO would tackle non-traditional security threats, such as terrorism, to its ties with Russia, its handling of European defense integration and its development after the global financial crisis.