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C O N F I D E N T I A L USNATO 000494 
 
NATO CONFIDENTIAL 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2019 
TAGS: ABUD AFIN APER NATO PGOV PREL
SUBJECT: SECRETARY GENERAL'S THOUGHTS ON REFORM 
 
Classified By: DCM John A. Heffern for reasons 1.4(B)&(D). 
 
¶1.  (NC) At the October 20 PermReps' lunch, Secretary General 
Rasmussen drew from the  following speaking notes on NATO 
reform: 
 
BEGIN TEXT 
 
NATO REFORM 
 
NATO cannot stand still. We must adapt to make sure we are in 
the best possible shape to meet the challenges this Alliance 
faces.  We should be able to take decisions more quickly on 
the basis of high-quality joint political-military advice. 
We must be able to spot early on emerging security issues and 
make sure we can tackle them.  And in these difficult 
economic times, we must always ensure that we are acting in 
the most efficient manner possible. 
 
In the past reform has often been addressed in large chunks, 
with issues brought together into a package approach. There 
is no intention to go down that path. When issues where 
change is needed are identified, they will be addressed 
swiftly with nations. 
 
Some might argue that the starting point for further reform 
should be the new Strategic Concept. And they have a point. 
It will give us answers to big questions and point towards 
other critical reform work. But the challenges we face now 
are of such importance that we cannot wait. We need reform 
now, and later. 
 
Some specific issues: 
 
There is a need for more joint working between the political 
and military sides of the house. Joint working produces 
higher-quality and faster products and should become our 
default working mode. 
 
To support more joint working, a close look at IS and IMS 
collocation is warranted.  Of course it is not a panacea, but 
it can have very real benefits which we should not shy away 
from exploring. 
 
NATO works by committee. This will not change. But a rigorous 
effort to make sure they are organised in the right way to 
deliver the results we seek is necessary.  Deputies are 
engaged in a review of these committees. This will not be a 
glamorous task, but it is critical work. They should take a 
radical approach and thoroughly test whether certain 
committees are still needed.  It is necessary to spot 
emerging policy issues early on. 
 
Policy making should be supported by a strong intelligence 
process. The Council deserves to have the best available 
information before it, in a form we can actually use.  The 
present situation is sub-optimal. We have many people and 
committees engaged in intelligence, but not in a coherent 
manner. Intelligence reform therefore needs to be a priority. 
 And once we do identify emerging security problems, we must 
not shy away from addressing them. 
 
The need to take a close look at how climate change is going 
to affect our security is an example. It is incredibly 
difficult to predict today how it will affect us, but we 
should start looking at the issue and taking action when we 
can. As a beginning, work has been tasked to make this 
Headquarters more "green". But that really is only the 
beginning - we need to look at the issue from multiple 
aspects. 
 
What we address also needs to drive how we are organised. 
This Headquarters cannot be static, but must adapt to the 
requirements. The nations have already given the Secretary 
General some flexibility to manage the staff more 
effectively. Full advantage must be taken of this, to make 
sure that resources do flow to priorities.  But at some 
point, larger organisational change may be necessary. 
 
When looking at our myriad collection of partnerships - all 
of them are valuable in their own right - would we not 
benefit by adopting a more coherent approach?  Have we ever 
managed to really define what it is we want to get out of 
these relationships? Once we know that, we will have a better 
view on what we should offer our Partners. Discussion on this 
should be started. 
 
The need for efficiency in how we do our business is 
important. Many countries around this table have suffered as 
a result of the difficult economic circumstances.  All the 
more reason for us to ensure that we are acting as 
efficiently as possible. 
 
The work currently underway on a review of NATO Agencies has 
great potential to deliver significant savings. It deserves 
more high-level attention from the Council. 
 
We should take a hard look at our Acquisition processes. They 
should be amended to support the effective, efficient and 
timely delivery of common funded capabilities to support 
operations as well as addressing other urgent tasks. The 
current processes are not well designed to do that. They need 
to change. 
 
In general, how we address capability development must always 
be high on our agenda. Allied Command Transformation has an 
important role to play in suggesting innovative approaches, 
and General Abrial will be asked to come forward with 
proposals. Not only on this issue, but also to better link 
his Headquarters into the policy process. 
 
The new NATO Headquarters is a significant investment. We all 
want to get value for money from it. The Secretary General 
has decided to set up a Transition Management team to ensure 
that we are able to do just that, and to tackle the problems 
that will undoubtedly arise as we gradually prepare for the 
move. 
 
Last of all, the new Human Resources Strategy will be 
discussed in November. We need more rotation in A-grade 
positions also below A6. But we are constrained by the fact 
that 60 percent of A-grades are on indefinite contract. And 
certainly the current budget does not allow us buy-offs. 
Nations need to cooperate in ensuring that positions that are 
identified for rotation can indeed be rotated. The gut 
reaction is to "defend" a secondee or a fellow countryman 
whose contract will not be extended. This should be avoided. 
It undermines the very rotations that nations are asking the 
Secretary General to ensure. 
 
END TEXT 
 
¶2. (C) In the discussion which followed, most PermReps were 
supportive of the general thrust of the Secretary General's 
remarks.  Only the Spanish equivocated. 
 
¶3.  (C) Comment:  NATO reform is clearly a top priority of 
the new Secretary General, as it is for the Mission.  We 
expect a detailed action plan to follow.  End comment. 
 
 
HEFFERN