 |
| « NATO Chiefs of Defense congregated for a committee meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on January 26. (John Thys/AFP/Getty Images) |
The next two weeks will see the spotlight turned on Germany at three crucial conferences in Europe. By Ron Fraser
Three crucial conferences are slated to take place over the next two weeks in Europe. The outcome of each will have important bearing on shaping the nature of Europe’s security and defense and its influence on the global economy. At the center of debates at each of these conferences will be a newly resurgent and increasingly assertive Germany.
Today nato launches its first committee meeting of its Chiefs of Defense since concluding agreement on its new strategic concept in Lisbon last year. At the same time that the nato chiefs will be meeting at nato headquarters in Brussels, a meeting that always gains greater headlines—the annual World Economic Forum—will convene in Davos, Switzerland. Whereas the nato meeting will last two days, the Davos Forum will extend from today till January 30.
Out of this melee of meetings of high-profile leaders from around the world committed to studying and enacting policy on economics and defense, will emerge some sort of agreed direction in both these vital policy areas on the international scene for the ensuing year. Only one other meeting having equal or perhaps even greater influence on international relations is the secretive annual assembly which convenes in a different location each year and seeks to agree the agenda for the overall direction of world affairs year by year, Bilderberg.
Davos and Bilderberg are globalist in concept, whereas nato and the Munich Security Conference will substantially concentrate on European, Eurasian and Middle Eastern affairs.
This year, by virtue of both its dominance in the European economic realm and the aggressive agenda it has set for revamping its total defense structure, Germany will be under the spotlight in all three meetings taking place in Brussels, Davos and Munich between January 26 and February 6.
What is it that we should watch for of real importance to emerge from these important conferences?
In Brussels, 66 top-level national military representatives will discuss the implementation of nato’s new strategic concept and its projected military consequences. They will also consider the ongoing evolution of nato and of present nato-led operations, in particular in Kosovo and Afghanistan. The security of the Mediterranean and the demarcation between Russia’s sphere of influence and that of the European Union in relation to the ongoing transformation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is also on the agenda.
With a mind to Russia’s prior involvement in the Lisbon process establishing nato’s new strategic concept, the nato-Russia Council Military Representatives (nrc-mr) will also assemble during the nato committee meeting to give special attention to what is termed the nrc Military Workplan 2011. The plan is strategically focused on methods of further broadening and deepening cooperation between the Russian Federation and nato.
Conclusions reached at the nato committee meeting will be fresh in the minds of security chiefs when they meet under the chairmanship of Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger in Munich barely a week later. A hot topic of discussion will no doubt be the recently released news that Germany is considering joining the new Franco-British defense alliance.
Publicized originally by the Daily Mail, reports indicate that “France is in talks with Britain and Germany to form military partnerships. If that happens then all three countries are going to cooperate with each other and share military know-how, troops and also equipment” (French Tribune, January 25).
The various reports on this subject indicate that Britain’s defense secretary shares close relationships with both the French minister of defense, Alain Juppe, and Germany’s Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.
It is no secret that Guttenberg, in particular, is a driving force behind moves toward establishing standards within European industry designed to coordinate the production of weapons and military equipment to set designs, Continent-wide, for the supply of a pan-European army. To this end, as the Trumpet has previously reported, Guttenberg has been in consultation with European industrialists and nato leaders since his term as Germany’s economics minister in 2009.
The latest move for Germany to form a military triumvirate with two major nuclear-armed powers, France and Britain, is but a further move to consolidate all defense and security measures, personnel and equipment toward meeting the EU elites’ goal of a combined European military force. Discussions at this year’s Munich defense conference will be aimed at advancing this goal.
As to Davos, with Germany being in control of largely dictating EU policy on the handling of the current euro crisis, it will be Germany’s representatives at this conference also who will be in the spotlight.
On the eve of Davos, the bbc reported that whereas global business confidence levels show 48 percent are very confident ranging to 12 percent showing no confidence at all, “Western European bosses are the least confident, with the exception of Austria and especially Germany, where a stunning 80 percent of top managers are ‘very confident’ about their companies’ performance” (January 25).
With Germany’s economy demonstrating a strength equivalent to pre-unification boom times, it is to this nation that business leaders and bankers at Davos will be looking to take the lead in restructuring Europe to recover from recession and, in particular, limit any negative effect of the euro crisis on the global economy.
Thus it is that Germany will be inevitably spotlighted over the next two weeks in discussions at these three important conferences. What will be interesting to watch for, in each case, will be any moves that result from these high-powered forums which further the agenda of those elites who seek the restoration of imperial power in Europe. For, as journalist Peter Oborne has commented, “the ultimate objective of the EU is otherwise more or less familiar to students of European empires: no internal boundaries; a single currency; one parliament; one central government; one army; one foreign policy and a single political unit stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals” (Telegraph, January 13).
He is speaking, of course, of a movement to revive the old Holy Roman Empire, stimulated by the Romans, Franks and the Germans, which dates back over 1,200 years. Oborne states the history thus: “Since the coronation of Charlemagne as holy Roman emperor in a.d. 800, there have been numerous attempts to unify Europe. Philip ii of Spain, Louis xiv, Napoleon and Hitler all came tantalizingly close to success, but all ultimately failed. Today a fifth attempt is under way through the European Union.”
Decisions taken in Brussels, Munich and Davos over the next two weeks are destined to provide further grist for the mill for those who work to grind down the masses by the undemocratic imposition of the will of elites in Brussels, Berlin and Rome to further their imperialist agenda.
