Mediterranean Security into the Coming Millennium

At present, U.S. air, naval, and ground forces stand guard across the Mediterranean and perform multiple missions. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Kosovo operation is only the largest and most prominent of these combat or combat-related missions. However, the scope of American civil and military engagement in the Mediterranean basin is enormous and growing. And as the Kosovo operation increasingly appears to encompass a wholesale restructuring of the Balkan sub-regional security system, that scope will only expand further. Therefore, across the Mediterranean the number of troops on active deployment and their missions will probably increase. This growth in U.S. engagement clearly pertains to our NATO allies as well, and not just in Kosovo. Even before that operation, they had forces in Bosnia due to the Dayton treaty. Both NATO and the European Union (EU) had begun systematic programs of security dialogues with other Mediterranean states in North Africa and the Middle East because of multiple challenges to the security of those organizations' member states. While those challenges are not strictly or even primarily military ones, many member states regard them as the fundamental blocks to regional security. If a lasting structure of peace is to evolve in the Mediterranean basin as a whole, Europe must engage those governments across a wide-ranging agenda of economic, social, political, military, and ecological issues. For these reasons, Mediterranean missions play an enormous role in current U.S. defense and foreign policies and will continue to be essential for our armed forces for some time.Army War Coll Strategic Studies Inst Carlisle Barracks PA is the author of 'Mediterranean Security into the Coming Millennium', published 1999 under ISBN 9781423552642 and ISBN 1423552644.