A strategic alliance of democratic and sovereign states; the adjectives are both its strength and its shortcoming. NATO's faults - sclerotic decision-making, unequal burden-sharing, lack of readiness - are much discussed, notably by then-US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates.
Yet, after sixty-five years, the Alliance continues to be the most successful collective defence partnership the world has known. With a combined four million under arms, NATO collectively accounts for nearly 70 percent of all military spending
NATO is the effective cop on the global beat, the go-to organization when muscle is required to manage chaos and restore order.
The three core principles of NATO's Strategic Concept - cooperative security, crisis response and collective defence - have enabled partnerships and operations beyond its original theatre.
Ultimately, collective security depends on two factors.
Political will is the most important. History suggests it takes a crisis, like the Crimean invasion, to arouse the Alliance to action.
The second is economic strength. We focus on NATO's Article V: in the case of an attack we are all for one and one for all. Yet we pay relatively little attention to Article II with its emphasis on the development of free institutions and encouraging economic collaboration.
Acknowledged as the Canadian contribution in drafting the NATO charter, the economic value of Article II is overlooked. Yet as a formula for economic regeneration, freer trade is without rival.
Bringing the Atlantic economies into closer integration is good for business and strategically smart.
This strategic dimension has been missing from the debate on the US-Europe Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Canada-Europe Trade Agreement (CETA). Achieving CETA and TTIP would be the economic match to the security alliance we created in 1949.
It's collective security, but with an economic edge.
Representative institutions, bolstered by free trade and the market economy, are the best means to underwrite our security and defence. They enable us to deal with the world as we find it, even as we work collectively towards the world we wish.
