NATO's will to reform takes center stage

BERLIN -- Ion Antonescu, the Romanian World War II leader, can thank the United States for the tin curtain that hides his bust outside Bucharest's Muncii Church. Before Romania can join NATO, a U.S. delegation asked for the removal of all monuments to the Nazi collaborator.

In Latvia, speakers of Russian are now eligible for public office. In the Czech Republic more attention is being paid to the rights of Gypsies. Again, thanks to NATO.

When the military alliance makes its historic enlargement Nov. 21-22 in Prague, admitting seven former Iron Curtain countries, its will to reform will take center stage; it needs to become a fast, supple anti-terrorism force to meet the post- Sept. 11 challenges.

Less celebrated are the behind-the-scenes negotiations that have gone on for months as the alliance has sought to ensure that no new member brings along unwelcome baggage. NATO is more than a military alliance -- it's a coalition of nations with shared values, NATO officials often say.

So in addition to guidelines for military spending, requirements for secure communications and civilian control of defense departments, the 17 NATO countries have made clear the need for changes in such areas as human rights, Holocaust reparations and the fight against corruption.

'We are democracies'

"What binds us together is not that we might defend each other but that we are democracies," said R. Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to NATO, who had 80 meetings with heads of state of the aspiring NATO members over the past year. "We've got to make sure the countries believe the way and act the way that we do." The former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea as well as Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are expected to be offered invitations in Prague. Albania, Croatia and Macedonia will not get the nod during this round.

NATO has applied direct pressure for reform in aspiring members through annual progress reports issued from its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Individual members of the alliance also have pushed for change. Many of the issues raised have long been sounded by the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe.

The lure of NATO membership has prompted many reforms that were slow in coming, much as when Spain joined the alliance in 1982 after throwing off a right-wing dictatorship. There was a strong incentive.

"They are going to be protected by the most powerful countries in the world," Burns said.

The alliance has harped on Romania's need to better serve its street children, according to a NATO official in Brussels, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In Albania and Macedonia, NATO officials have pressed for strengthening the police and judicial systems. With the alliance's encouragement, the Bulgarian leadership has made fighting corruption a priority.

Slovakia was pressured to ensure that weapons it manufactures do not end up in countries with which arms trade is unlawful. "There are cases where Slovak arms ended up in Liberia, and that hasn't pleased some of the nations," said the NATO official. "We have had an influence in strengthening their arms-control regime." Because NATO shares classified information with all its members, the alliance also has insisted that applicants beef up security, ensuring that communications are free from eavesdropping, that computers and buildings are properly secured and that the people handling sensitive information are above reproach.

"There is also the issue of some of these countries -- more than others Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia -- where we haven't seen wholesale replacement of the elite," the official said. "It's more like gradual reform, where people firmly linked to the old system must be vetted before becoming recipients of NATO documents." The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, gave aspiring countries an opportunity to show why they should become part of the largest expansion in NATO's 53-year history.

Bulgaria offered its airfields as staging areas for the U.S.-led fight against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Romania impressed alliance officials by transporting its own soldiers in and out of Afghanistan, something longtime member Germany cannot do.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE) The eastern expansion reflects the calming of the European continent 13 years after communism collapsed, and the alliance's recognition that the likeliest threats its members will face come from outside Europe.

With an eye on creating a quick-response force of about 21,000 troops that can hit the ground in a week and sustain itself for a month, NATO seeks members that can move their own troops through leased or owned transport planes. It needs tankers able to refuel other planes in midair. It needs precision-guided munitions.

Concerned about the growing technological gap between the United States and its partners, NATO officials have been hectoring the other members to spend more on defense. While the United States pays more than 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product on the military, most NATO countries pay less than 2 percent. Germany pays just more than 1 percent.

Some European members, such as France, have increased their spending on defense, but most cannot or will not. Jeffrey Gedmin, who runs the Aspen Institute research center's office in Berlin, said the United States had realized that it would be better to focus less on how much countries were spending and more on how they were spending it.

"Countries have to develop certain specialties that can compliment American capabilities," he said, "whether it's special forces, mine sweepers or bio and chemical weapons detectors. This will also give them some bargaining capability vis-a-vis the U.S."