Dear CCI Friends,
In our frustration to get our points-of-view to major media outlets, let’s follow David Speedie’s example below by sending “Letters to Editors” to publications that have tens of thousands of readers.
On May 12, David sent “Letters to Editors” to the Financial Times. To his surprise, his letter was printed and he has received emails back supporting his comments.
Please consider emailing “Letters to Editors” to The New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post when they post articles with which you disagree … or agree. Be sure submissions are short, preferably 150 words or less.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
To: <letters.editor@ft.com>
A New NATO?
May 13, 2020
There is much to applaud in Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer’s opinion piece “How NATO can adapt to meet new security challenges” [FT, 11 May] … especially the observations that “NATO has to get better at combating less traditional security challenges” and that most obviously and immediately the Covid-19 pandemic, can[not] be deterred by tanks and missiles.
Where one takes exception to her analysis and conclusions is in the assertion that “The secret of NATO’s longevity is its adaptability….NATO has always adjusted to the challenge at hand.” Lord Ismay famously observed at the NATO alliance’s founding that its threefold purpose was to “keep Russia out, the Americans in, and Germany down”. Other than Germany’s now robust participation, Ismay might say “mission accomplished”.
Herein lies the problem. Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s underlying argument is correct: that broad, one might say global, cooperation is essential for tackling a virus that attacks the entire planet. With Russia [not the Soviet Union of 1949] not only still “out”, but facing NATO military exercises close to its shores in the Baltics and the Black Sea, Moscow must conclude that NATO’s agenda remains not one of openness to joint threat address, but one of military confrontation.
COVID-19’s center-stage dominance does not mean that climate change and the nuclear threat have disappeared. To begin to wrestle with these two issues in serious fashion necessitates increased political and diplomatic dialogue, not war games in the Baltic.
David C. Speedie
Charlottesville, Virginia