The problem of military interventions in dysfunctional states

New security threats in the form of states affected by a high degree of dysfunctionality made muffling local conflicts and rebuilding state structures a key way to ensure security. Therefore, in the 21st century the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, apart from being an organization that guarantees ‘hard security’, it has to be also an exporter of stabilization. During the NATO summit in Strasbourg and Kehl in April 2009 the work on a new strategic concept of North Atlantic Treaty was undertaken, which was to be a response to threats experienced by NATO members in changing international conditions. The worked out document became the basis of a new strategic concept of the North Atlantic Treaty, approved during NATO summit in Lisbon in November 2010. Collective territorial defense will remain NATO’s fundamental mission but no ally will be able to afford to maintain forces exclusively for this purpose. Crisis management operations outside the Treaty territory were recorded as one of the three, next to the collective defense and cooperative security, NATO’s tasks. In the face of globalization when the distance on the map is no longer a protection against infiltration of threats from areas of conflict and destabilization, the NATO’s expeditionary operations of crisis management, as the “Libyan operation” will be realized. Concluding in the years to come the key challenge for NATO will be to build consensus on the shape and nature of common allied expeditionary missions, mainly in the countries with a high degree of state dysfunctionality. Currently NATO-led operations, which may be included into military operations carried out in relation to the states of the highest degree of dysfunctionality are: Afghanistan International Security Assistance Force and anti-piracy operation off the Somali coast – Ocean Shield.