One of you recently asked me on EUCOM Blog two incredibly important questions:  what am I doing to get more NATO countries into the fight in Afghanistan, and what am I doing to engage Russia?

First, let us clearly understand that EVERY nation in NATO is “in the fight” in Afghanistan.  This is a committed alliance.

Second, as the Secretary General has said, “This Alliance is about sharing security, but that doesn’t just mean sharing the benefits. It also means sharing the costs and the risks.”  The nations that comprise NATO of course need to make their own determinations as to what contributions they make to NATO operations in Afghanistan.  My job is to provide them, through NATO leadership in Brussels, with timely, accurate information about the operational environment so that they can make well-informed decisions.  I spend a lot of time in dialogue with Brussels and nations to ensure that they have the latest information on the current environment, the progress we’ve made, and the challenges that remain. 

Third, I try to make the case everywhere I go that we are a team that is “stronger together,” and that no one of us — no one nation — is as capable as all of us pulling together.  There is a real synergy in all of us pulling together and the sum truly is greater than the simple addition of the parts in Afghanistan. more…

I attended an extraordinary dinner last night.

In a small wood-paneled ballroom at the glittering Adlon Hotel of Berlin, a parade of speakers celebrated what is called in German “die Mauerfall” — “the fall of the wall.”  It came in the 60th year of the NATO Alliance, and was hosted by the Atlantic Council.

The best speech of the night was Hillary Clinton’s, who accepted a “Freedom’s Challenge” award on behalf of the American people.  As she spoke eloquently of all that the trans-Atlantic Alliance has meant over the years, I thought not of the past, but of the future.  As Secretary Clinton said, essentialy the fall of the wall was not the end of history, but the beginning.  So true.

The other remarkable speech was Vaclav Havel, the former President of Czechoslovakia and the leader of the “velvet revolution.” Drawing on his remarkable novel, “The Magic Lantern,” he spoke of the light shining anew through the lands of the east.  Sitting in that ball room with Americans Henry Kissinger, Brent Scocroft, Zbigniew Brzezinski and their European counterparts from those days two decades ago, one felt indeed the power of the light of liberty. more…

I’ve just returned from Bratislava, Slovakia where the NATO Fall ‘09 Defense Ministerial was held, followed by an official visit to Slovakian senior defense leaders.

The Defense Ministerial is a chance for all 28 of the NATO Defense leaders (Ministers and Secretaries of Defense) to gather in a plenary session for a couple of days and discuss key issues.  Our new Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, led the event.
Bratislava is Slovakia’s historic capital perched on the Danube River. The city of a half-million in a country of some five million is full of lovely classic European architecture and within a few minutes drive from  the Tatra mountain range and hundreds of medieval castles and historic villages, some of them declared UN world heritage sites.

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