Admiral Stavridis (centre) provides remarks during the A5 Chiefs of Defense Conference in Budva, Montenegro 23-24 September. Read the remarks at the end of the blog text.

Over a decade ago, the brilliant writer Robert Kaplan published an award-winning study of the long history of turmoil, racial and religious hatred, conquest, and war in the Balkans.  His evocative title was perfect for his themes of historical enmity and bitterness:  Balkan Ghosts.

As I fly back from a three day visit of the region, I certainly had ample opportunity to see firsthand all that he describes; yet today, there seems to me to be real hope in the region for cooperation and security alignment, perhaps for the first time in the more than two millenniums of recorded history.
 
I’ve now visited the Balkans several times in both my NATO and U.S. European Command (EUCOM) hats.

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I had a good series of meetings in Lisbon, Portugal on Monday.  The gathering in Lisbon was with all of the Defense Chiefs from the 28 nations of NATO.  We focused on two key topics for the alliance: Afghanistan and the Strategic Concept.

Afghanistan, of course, is the “here and now.”  General Stan McChrystal presented his classified briefing on the situation there.  He emphasized the need to protect the Afghan population in order to defeat the insurgency; the requirement for robust training for Afghan security forces; and the imperative to achieve the right balance of civil-military efforts in this challenging situation.

The Strategic Concept is, on the other hand, all about the future of NATO.  Every ten years, the alliance tends to take a step back and assess where it is headed.  One of the distinguished speakers, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, spoke of needing to understand “the four Rs” of NATO:  relevance, range, resources, and results.  I think he has it about right, and he specifically talked about the need to “get the message right” to the younger generations who have little understanding of what this transatlantic bridge is all about.

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For the first time in more than forty years, a French four-star General is again in command of one of the key military positions in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

After President Sarkozy of France announced his nation’s full re-integration into NATO (or OTAN for its initials in French), the Alliance responded by asking France to nominate an officer as one of the two Supreme Commanders.

My position is Supreme Allied Commander, Europe or SACEUR as I am commonly called.  My command is Allied Command Operations, which means from my headquarters in Mons, Belgium I am responsible for all NATO operations world wide.

The co-equal Supreme Allied Commander, Transformation or SAC-T is located in Norfolk.  It is the only NATO command on U.S. soil, and is NATO’s leading agent for change, driving, facilitating, and advocating continuous improvement of Alliance capabilities to maintain and enhance the military relevance and effectiveness of the Alliance. more…