ESLaPorte
2004-04-04 14:29:22 UTC
France should be ejected at the soonest.
Yes and no...There is currently no situation to prompt the suspension a nation's NATO
membership. There are at least two reasons to suspend a nation's NATO and
this Author would like to promote a third. First, if a member state goes
communist or falls into an undemocratic regime (there is a problem with
this - see below). Second, entering into agreements that are contary to
Article 8, which mean entering into an alliance with a dictator against
other NATO Allies or the United Nations Charter.
The third promoted by this Author is if a NATO member nation engages in
practices that are contrary to the principles and values on the North
Atlantic Treaty, which can include violating the human rights of its
citizens. In the essay I wrote on the topic, I use the example of religious
extremism, ex. aquire an Islamic fundamentalist government that subscribes
to the notions that women and citizens of other religious have no human
rights. I would also extend the prospect of suspending NATO membship to
other minorities, such as the persecution of ethnic-Russians in the Baltics.
Yes- I would suspend NATO membership of Latvia should it begin persecuting
Russian minorities.
Sir Nicholas Henderson (The Birth of NATO. George, Weidenfeld and Nicholson:
London, UK.) wrote that the Canadians wanted to have some form of
expulsions, as the North Atlantic Pact was to be "an association of free
peoples" and the wanted a clear procudure to suspend association. The
British wanted to suspention to be triggered when an member enters into an
undemocratic alliance or engages in offensive military actions against other
Allies.
There is currently no procedure to suspend a nation's NATO membership.
However, unanimous agreement is needed to invite a nation to become a NATO
member. If unanimous agreement would be needed to suspend NATO membership,
this could be problematic as the offender would have to agree to suspend
himself! Such an offender might also want to muck up the North Atlantic
Council, and thus not want to be involved in kicking himself out of the
Alliance!
The problem with kicking out a nation for becoming a dictatorship is that
the Alliance has been associated with nations with dubious democratic
records. First, Portugal, a dictatorship in 1949, was an orginal signer to
the North Atlantic Pact and Greece with its military junta is the 1960's.
The governments of Portugal and Greece never sought to damage or destroy the
NATO Alliance and association with NATO may have helped rehabilitate these
countries toward democratic principles.
Theoretically, we could kick France out of the Alliance for entering an
alliance with Saddam Hussein, but this would have to be a military alliance.
However - suspending NATO membership for disagreeing with the war in Iraq
and "not cooperating with the US" is not a valid reason to suspend NATO
membership.
I would agree that it appeared as if France tried to undermine NATO's
ability to carry out its basic mission. The reason for this could very well
be the Gaullest notion the "France should speak for Europe" and the behavior
of the French in the NAC appears to be along these aspirations.
Yes - we can kick a memberstate out of the NATO Alliance. . !
http://www.pronato.com/solidarity/factsheets/nato.membership.out.htm
Happy April Fourth!
Erin LaPorte
The NATO Citizen - www.pronato.com
"Long live the entangling Alliance!"
"Long live NATO!"