NATO to outline new strategies for new realities

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NATO to outline new strategies for new realities
By Karen DeYoung and Edward Cody
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 16, 2010; 8:37 PM

As NATO struggles to define itself in a post-Cold War world of new threats and tight budgets, the alliance this week will lay out a vision for itself that is meant to better reflect the realities of the 21st century.

The so-called Strategic Concept, NATO's first mission statement in more than a decade, will be unveiled at a gathering in Lisbon that alliance Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called "one of the most important summits in the history of our alliance."

The statement will embrace deployment of a land-based alliance missile-defense system and approve cost-cutting plans to reduce overlapping weapons systems and streamline NATO's command structure. It will echo President Obama's ideal of "a world without nuclear weapons," but it will make clear that NATO will retain its nuclear deterrent as long as others have such weapons.

It also will commit NATO to developing new capabilities for cyber defense and counterterrorism, as well as enhanced air defense and ground surveillance systems.

Obama leaves Thursday night for the two-day meeting, a fast turn-around just days after he returned from a 10-day tour of Asia to face resurgent Republicans after their mid-term election victory.