U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on the NATO alliance Tuesday to chart a clear path toward relevance and enhanced capability as it faces a different set of threats than it was founded to address more than 60 years ago. Gates wants a key NATO document being drafted this year to advance a transformation theme U.S. leaders have been pressing for a long time.
星期二，美国国防部长盖茨敦促北约盟国制定一条清晰的路线，以便适应目前北约所面对的与其60多年前创建时不同的威胁以及加强自身能力。盖茨希望北约今年草拟的一项重要文件将促进美国领导人长期以来一直在推动的转型过程。
Secretary Gates told a NATO conference in Washington that the new Strategic Concept officials are set to write this year needs to address a wide range of issues in what he called a "succinct,... comprehensible and compelling" document that impresses Europeans raised in a post-Cold War and post-September 11 world.
盖茨在华盛顿召开的一次北约会议上说，有关官员定于今年起草的新战略概念必须针对一系列广泛的问题。他说，这将是一个简洁、透彻和有力的文件。这个文件将触动在后冷战时期和9-11事件之后的世界中成长起来的欧洲人。
"The demilitarization of Europe - where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it - has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st [century]," he said.
盖茨说：“欧洲的非军事化已经从20世纪的一件好事变成在21世纪实现真正安全和持久和平的障碍，在欧洲，数量众多的一般公众和政界人士都不喜欢军事力量以及随之而来的危险。”
Secretary Gates said Europe's people must come to understand the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as an international security alliance, not just an organization for the protection of Europe's territorial integrity, as it was at its founding in 1949.
盖茨说，欧洲人必须理解北大西洋公约组织的重要性，北约不仅是一个国际安全联盟，而且是一个保护欧洲领土完整的组织，正如北约在1949年创建时那样。
"Threats are more likely to emanate from failed, failing or fractured states than from aggressor states, where dangerous, non-state actors often operate from within nations with which we are not at war, or from within our own borders, and where weapons proliferation and new technologies make possible the specter of chaos and mass destruction in any of our capitals," he said .
盖茨说：“威胁更可能来自那些已经失败或者正在失败的国家以及那些分裂的国家，而不是来自那些具有侵略性的国家。那些危险的行动者并非国家，他们在我们的境内活动，或者在一些国家内部活动，而这些国家与我们并不处于战争状态。武器扩散和新技术使得我们任何一个国家的首都都可能发生混乱和遭到大规模杀伤。”
Gates said NATO needs to change the way it operates - improving its budget process, investing in future capabilities and closing bases it no longer needs. He noted that for many years, the member-nations have not been willing to meet requirements for cargo planes, refueling aircraft, helicopters and intelligence capabilities. The secretary said the alliance needs to "fundamentally change how it sets priorities and allocates resources," so it can remain "relevant" in a changing "strategic landscape."
盖茨说，北约必须改变自己的运作方式，改进预算程序，为将来的能力投资，并关闭不再需要的基地。盖茨指出，北约成员国多年来不愿意满足在货运飞机、空中加油飞机、直升机以及情报能力等方面的需求。盖茨说，北约必须从根本上改变设置重点和配备资源的方式，以便能够在一个正在发生变化的战略环境中维持自己的效能。
U.S. officials have pressed those points many times in recent years, urging Europeans to spend more on defense and be more supportive of NATO efforts - ranging from missile defense to the war in Afghanistan. U.S. officials say there has been progress, particularly in getting more European troops for Afghanistan.
近年来，美国官员多次强调这些观点，敦促欧洲国家增加防务开支，并对北约的努力给予更多支持 -- 从导弹防御到阿富汗战争。美国官员说，在这些方面已经取得了进步，特别是说服欧洲国家向阿富汗派驻了更多军队。
But British researcher Sally McNamara of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation doubts whether a new document from the alliance will change what she calls the "pacifistic" trend in many European countries.
但是，总部设在华盛顿的传统基金会的英国研究人员麦克纳马拉对一个北约新文件是否能够改变她所说的很多欧洲国家存在的和平主义倾向表示怀疑。
"If we look at the problems that NATO has, [such as] burden sharing, it's Afghanistan. We're in Afghanistan right now and there is nothing about a piece of paper or a treaty that is going to more equitably share the burden in Afghanistan. And that is the problem, she said."
她说：“如果我们看一看北约所面临的问题，比如分担责任，这个问题存在于阿富汗。我们目前在阿富汗，却没有一项有关在阿富汗更平等地分担责任的文件或协定。这就是问题所在。”
A defense expert focusing on NATO issues, McNamara says she was initially quite enthusiastic about the plan for a new alliance Strategic Concept document. But as the process has developed, she says she has come to believe that the alliance's 28 nations will be unable to draft the kind of document they need.
麦克纳马拉是专门研究北约问题的防务专家。她说，她最初对制定一项北约新战略概念文件很有热情，但随着进程的发展，她现在已经相信北约的28个成员国没有能力起草这样一份北约所需要的文件。
"If you look at NATO's last strategic concept in 1999, it was widely regarded as one of the most useless documents because it was too long [and] it had a bit of something for everyone," she said. "This document will almost certainly do that, and that will be a shame because it won't be clear; it won't give any message about the future," said McNamara.
麦克纳马拉说：“看一看北约1999年制定的最近的战略概念。这份文件被广泛认为是最无用的文件之一，原因是这份文件太长，为每个方面都提供了一点东西。几乎可以肯定，新文件也会是这样，而这将是一个遗憾，因为新文件将不是明确的，不会提供有关未来的任何信息。”
Secretary Gates also mentioned that concern Tuesday, speaking to NATO officials at the National Defense University in Washington.
星期二，盖茨在华盛顿的国防大学演讲时也提到了这个问题。
"NATO needs serious, far-reaching and immediate reforms to address a crisis that has been years in the making. And unless the Strategic Concept spurs operational and institutional changes like those I just mentioned, it will not be worth the paper it is printed on," said Gates.
他说：“北约需要认真的、广泛的和立即实行的改革，以应对多年来酝酿着的一个危机。除非这项战略概念能够推动我刚才提到的运作以及制度方面的改变，否则这项战略概念就一文不值。”
The conference is expected to be the last public discussion of issues related to NATO's new Strategic Concept. In the next phase, experts will draft a document, circulate it among NATO members and make changes needed to get the required approval from all of them, and then put it up for formal endorsement at the next NATO summit, which is expected to be held in Lisbon late this year.
预计，这一会议将是对北约新战略概念的最后一次公开讨论。在下一阶段，专家们将起草一份文件，供北约各成员国审阅，为得到全体成员国同意而做必要的修改，然后提交下届北约首脑会议予以正式批准。预计，下次北约首脑会议将于今年晚些时候在里斯本举行。 |