Time:2013/6/18

On April 8, 2013, Dr. Stephen J. Flanagan, the Kissinger Chair in Diplomacy & National Security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), visited the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CISS) at Peking University (PKU) and made a speech titled the “Transformation of NATO and China” at the Kim Koo Forum.

In his speech, Dr. Flanagan first traced the transforming development of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since 1989. After the end of the Cold War, instead of disappearing, NATO refocused from collective security to conducting various new tasks. While expanding east, NATO also made an effort to develop partnerships with non-NATO countries. For now, the strategic circumstance of NATO comes with three features: first, a general secure and prosper status of Europe and Trans-Atlantic region; second, turbulence in many regions of the world resulting from multiple reasons; third, reduced defense abilities of European countries because of the financial crisis and austerity. Against this background, in 2009 and 2010, NATO reconsidered in depth its role in future tasks, challenges and the possibility of reform.. In the new circumstances, core missions of NATO include collective security, crisis management and reaction, and collaborative security. Another crucial NATO mission is to ensure successful transformation of Afghanistan and enable Afghanis to undertake their own domestic security maintenance by the end of 2014. Moreover, NATO highly emphasizes cooperation with China. In addition to the diplomatic dialogues since 2002, China and NATO also have made military exchanges through UN peacekeeping operations and escorting operations in the Gulf of Aden. In the future, the cooperation between China and NATO will show more possibilities. After the speech, Dr. Flanagan discussed other issues with attendees, including the war in Libya and situations in Asia-Pacific region.

The event was hosted by Prof. Zhu Feng, Deputy Director of CISS. Associate Prof. Han Hua, Associate Prof. Wang Dong, Dr. Jie Dalei and graduate students from the School of International Studies, PKU also attended the event.