What Kind of Slovakia for NATO

The most important topic for the 2014 NATO summit was supposed to be the end of the ISAF mission. Many saw it as an existential issue, going beyond military logistics and the security situation in Afghanistan. Crippling cuts in defence budgets across Europe, and paradigmatic changes in U.S. security strategy, would put the value of the transatlantic military bond under scrutiny. Russian boots on Ukrainian soil changed the order of topics for the Wales meeting, but it remains to be seen what the long-term implications will be.For Slovakia, situated on NATO's eastern border, the desired outcome should already be clear: a politically and militarily stronger transatlantic alliance, able to protect its members as well as project stability and prosperity in its neighbourhood. Having borders with like-minded democratic countries is not only in our security interests, but also has tremendous economic value, as evidenced by the intensive trade exchange with all but one of our neighbours, Ukraine. It is in our interests that the West helps Ukraine resist anti-systemic pressures and keep the country on its path towards democracy and prosperity.It is also in Slovakia's interests that those countries that desire to integrate are allowed to do so. As Tomas Valasek, the Slovak ambassador to NATO, said recently, previous enlargements put Russia's relations with those neighbours that are in NATO on a stable and predictable footing. Our decision to do nothing [as opposed to enlarging the organisation] will invite further aggression. Moreover, the integration process has been pushing candidate countries towards difficult but necessary reforms; we certainly do not want to deprive ourselves of such a well-functioning and useful tool.Some parts of our neighbourhood, though, are highly volatile and cannot be stabilised by means of integration. Moreover, the recent, striking decrease in U.S. military engagement in our part of the world shows that the European allies will have to take more responsibility for future crisis situations. Therefore, the end of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan should not be translated as the end of NATO's operations abroad. Crises very often break out abruptly, without leaving much time for preparations. In this respect, we have to keep our military forces ready for remote deployments, in terms of hardware, training and interoperability.Still, the core role of the alliance is collective defence. Even though we understand the importance of maintaining the political and military ability to carry out crisis management operations beyond the alliance's borders, the recent developments in Ukraine show us that territorial defence still matters in Europe. Some of the CEE allies, especially Poland and the Baltic States, often seen as too radical, have been consistent in explaining the risks of neglecting Article 5 contingencies.1 As we can see today, when the whole concept of the inviolability of borders in Europe is being questioned, their assessment was correct.Naturally, the CEE countries are the most concerned about the situation in Ukraine. It is often said that the Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula is the first military take-over in Europe since the Second World War, but such a statement is misleading. Soviet troops invaded and occupied Hungary in 1956, and Czechoslovakia in 1968, in attempts to sustain Moscow's grip over half of the continent. These acts, while not formally annexations were, de facto, serving the very same goal of securing absolute control over the territory. What is happening now to the east of our borders is therefore just a return to the Soviet-style, brute-force way of doing power politics.The only effective answer is the one that once prevented the Soviets from dismantling the democratic political systems of NATO's members, or even using military force against them. It is a combination of a resolute and unanimous rejection of imperial ambitions and denouncement of the totalitarian nature of the Soviet regime on the one hand, and firm commitment to joint self defence under the aegis of the United States, the ultimate guarantor of Western Europe's security, on the other. …