NATO 2022 STRATEGIC CONCEPT: PRIORITIES, CAPABILITIES AND REALITY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE STRATEGIC COMPETITION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31733/2078-3566-2022-6-43-52Keywords:
NATO Strategic Concept, strategic security environment, strategic competition, Deterrence and Defense, crisis management, Cooperative Security.Abstract
The article examines NATO Strategic Concept 2022 in the context of NATO’s current understanding of challenges, risks, and threats caused by radical changes in the strategic environment, their consequences and measures to ensure the security of the Alliance. Considered are traditions of working out, selecting the purpose, content, and the structure of strategic concepts in general and the new Strategic Concept in particular. Carried out was a comparative analysis of the certain aspects of NATO’s strategic concepts in the historical context while taking into account changes in the security environment and the global balance of power. Analyzed was the transformational impact of the strategic competition on the Alliance’s broader security environment. Characterized are the goals, actions and capabilities of strategic competitors, as well as additional forces and variables, trends and exogenous shocks that affect its overall structure. The article underscores additional threats from the strategic competitors such as Russia and China due to their deepening strategic partnership based on the common goal of weakening the rules-based international order, which is contrary to NATO’s values and interests. Highlighted are NATO’s ways of responding, shaped by the Alliance’s three core tasks aimed at ensuring collective defense based on a «360-degree approach». Presented is the analysis of the tasks based on their order of priority, main issues, transformational reorientation, veiled or lacking points. On the basis of the works of the prominent specialists and the research of NATO’s strategy, the process of transformation of NATO’s concepts over a significant historical period has been traced. Conclusions were made regarding problematic issues, the Alliance’s effectiveness and its ability to achieve the goals defined in the Strategic Concept as high-level political guidance and their dependence on the ability of the Alliance members to anticipate events and prepare for them, rather than simply react.
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