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| NATO-Andreas Zumach |
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| Andreas Zumach |
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the role of
NATO has almost completely transformed from an organization to protect
Western Europe from Soviet dominance to expansion and protection of
security and stability in the Ural-Atlantic region. How and possibly
why this change has been taking place over the last decade was the
subject of a talk by NATO and UN specialist and journalist Andreas
Zumach. The end of the Cold War brought a great deal of discussion
about the future of security in North America and Western Europe with,
at least on the surface, most countries promoting the Organization
of Security and Cooperation in Europe, of which the US and Canada
are members, and gradually away from NATO, whose reason for existing
had effectively ended. A decade later, the budget for the OSCE is
$142 million. The budget for NATO is now $400 billion. After a clear
preference for the use of NATO over UN intervention in the former
Yugoslavia by the US re-established a role for NATO, in 1999 a new
strategy in which the Ural-Atlantic security and stability concept
was made the main directive was established. Andreas argued that the
fundamental concern is not in what the new plans said, but in what
they failed to say about the implied but not clearly stated importance
of securing energy resources, access to oceans for member countries
and the meaning of Ural-Atlantic which could mean to Moscow, Central
Asia or as far as Vladivostok on the Japan Sea. The real goals of
NATO's expansion of territory and purpose can only be speculated about
as ambiguity and unilateral action seems to be the trend, but it is
something worth being aware of and concerned about. |
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| Ballroom dance |
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| Puttin on the ritz during ballroom dance night |
The last week has been as busy as ever visiting three countries, Greece, Croatia and Libya, along the way. Much of our time has been devoted to preparing for one stop after the next with many lectures by guest speakers onboard taking up the remainder of the days. Still, looking around we find that sunset time has become a choice moment of escape from the inside of Peace Boat, the cool, dark and spacious cinema on the lowest passenger deck is a haven of comfort for the seasick as we hit unusually stormy seas leaving Libya and a night of formal dinner and ballroom dancing on the night of June 4th between Greece and Croatia. |
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| Peace Boat's 37th Voyage |
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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