The Washington Quarterly

Lugar, Richard.
Redefining NATO's Mission: WMD Terrorism
The Washington Quarterly - Volume 25, Number 3, Summer 2002, pp. 7-13

The MIT Press

Richard Lugar - Redefining NATO's Mission: WMD Terrorism - The Washington Quarterly 25:3 The Washington Quarterly 25.3 (2002) 7-13 Redefining NATO's Mission: WMD Terrorism Richard G. Lugar Will the United States and Europe succeed in fashioning a common strategy for a global war on terrorism? This question is crucial for the future of the trans-Atlantic relationship. Will we stand shoulder to shoulder, just as we confronted the Soviet Union during the Cold War? Are political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic willing to make the political commitment necessary to hammer out common objectives and policies and to recast our institutions to meet this challenge? We must ask ourselves whether we as leaders are prepared to draw the right conclusions and do what we can to reduce this threat or whether it will take another, even deadlier, terrorist attack to force us into action. In 1996 I made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency. Three of my campaign television ads depicted a mushroom cloud and warned of the threat posed by the growing danger of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the hands of terrorist groups. I argued that the next president should be selected on the basis of a perceived ability to meet that challenge. At the time, those ads were widely criticized for being far-fetched and alarmist. Recently, national television networks have replayed the ads, which are now viewed from a different perspective. The terrorist attacks of last September...