Thursday, November 11, 2004
- US - EUROPEAN RELATIONS
Lecturer: Prof. dr. Ruud Janssens
Military Relations: NATO and Peace Enforcement. Presentation by Diana, Sjoed & Maarten
Interesting presentation today; I'll post it sometime this evening. Meanwhile, here are some comments by Prof. Janssens:
. Assymetric Warfare. How are conventional armed forces supposed to deal with urban guerrillas? As we are seeing right now in Fallujah, urban warfare makes it more difficult to use the enormous advantage of technology, on which Americans heavily rely (for a different opinion, see Ralph Kenney Bennet: "Technique and Technology in Fallujah", TechCentralStation .)
Assymetric warfare means that the enemy has the initiative, because he can pick his own fights. Thus, Fallujah itself does not mean much to "insurgents"; they will move out ant try to kill Americans elsewhere.
. NATO as a Political Organization. One should not lose sight of the fact that NATO is a political organization. It is run by ambassadors, not by generals. This is very important to the United States, because it gives them some leverage in discussions about the integration of East European countries.
. The Perception of Threats. Europeans and Americans have very different opinions on this issue. When dealing with problems in poor parts of the world (especially Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and the countries of North Africa), Europeans tend to think more in terms of social problems, globalization, trade, etc. They favor diplomatic solutions.
This stands in sharp contrast with the United States, who tend to rely more on military solutions (this is especially the case in the Bush administration -- although the difference in perceptions predates 9/11.)
Lecturer: Prof. dr. Ruud Janssens
Military Relations: NATO and Peace Enforcement. Presentation by Diana, Sjoed & Maarten
Interesting presentation today; I'll post it sometime this evening. Meanwhile, here are some comments by Prof. Janssens:
. Assymetric Warfare. How are conventional armed forces supposed to deal with urban guerrillas? As we are seeing right now in Fallujah, urban warfare makes it more difficult to use the enormous advantage of technology, on which Americans heavily rely (for a different opinion, see Ralph Kenney Bennet: "Technique and Technology in Fallujah", TechCentralStation .)
Assymetric warfare means that the enemy has the initiative, because he can pick his own fights. Thus, Fallujah itself does not mean much to "insurgents"; they will move out ant try to kill Americans elsewhere.
. NATO as a Political Organization. One should not lose sight of the fact that NATO is a political organization. It is run by ambassadors, not by generals. This is very important to the United States, because it gives them some leverage in discussions about the integration of East European countries.
. The Perception of Threats. Europeans and Americans have very different opinions on this issue. When dealing with problems in poor parts of the world (especially Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and the countries of North Africa), Europeans tend to think more in terms of social problems, globalization, trade, etc. They favor diplomatic solutions.
This stands in sharp contrast with the United States, who tend to rely more on military solutions (this is especially the case in the Bush administration -- although the difference in perceptions predates 9/11.)
# posted by Agustin @ 1:59 PM 
