Abstract
This article examines the question of how NATO employs instruments of power as it prepares for a possible defence against aggression from a potential adversary. It will attempt to answer this question by applying the various instruments of national power to form a qualitative assessment of the degree to which NATO exerts itself in these those power domains and how effectively these prepare NATO for conventional warfare. The article will consider how these instruments of national power, as represented by the ‘DIMEFIL’ acronym, can be applied and quantified as NATO’s own ‘supranational’ power parameters. Notwithstanding the obvious fact that NATO cannot be considered as a ‘national’ entity, nevertheless this article argues that such an analysis provides sufficient validity to produce observations and derive reliable conclusions. Whether such an analysis can shed light on NATO’s level of preparedness in fighting- and winning- a conventional European land conflict is the principal consideration of this article.
Highlights
This article examines the question of how North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) employs instruments of power as it prepares for a possible defence against aggression from a potential adversary
Of note is the inclusion of the ‘legal’ category, recognising the important role of legal process in legitimisation of potential defensive International Armed Conflict, and in its increasing ‘weaponisation’ in contemporary warfare (Oskarsson 2017). It should be noted from the outset that whilst DIMEFIL is commonly understood to represent the instruments of national power and recognising that NATO as a collective entity is a ‘supranational’ and not national entity per se, this paper argues that these same instruments of power can be validly applied to NATO in order to make a qualitative assessment of its levels of preparedness
This article has provided an analysis focussed on the strategic level, of key issues affecting NATO’s preparedness to fight a conventional war against its most likely peer/ near peer adversary, Russia
Summary
This article examines the question of how NATO employs instruments of power as it prepares for a possible defence against aggression from a potential adversary. Of note is the inclusion of the ‘legal’ category, recognising the important role of legal process in legitimisation of potential defensive International Armed Conflict, and in its increasing ‘weaponisation’ in contemporary warfare (Oskarsson 2017) It should be noted from the outset that whilst DIMEFIL is commonly understood to represent the instruments of national power and recognising that NATO as a collective entity is a ‘supranational’ and not national entity per se, this paper argues that these same instruments of power can be validly applied to NATO in order to make a qualitative assessment of its levels of preparedness. 1 ‘DIMEFIL’ is the preferred term in current US War College instruction
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