For the past two years, leaders of the 28 North Atlantic Treaty Organization member nations have been drafting a new strategic concept for the alliance. With nato’s original raison d’être having been long outmoded, since the end of the Cold War, the alliance has struggled for the past 20 years to justify the reason for its continuance.

Hence the current moves to reinvent nato and find a role for it to play in today’s present disordered world where no one single nation dominates the global power equation. Gainsayers will still maintain that the United States is the single most powerful nation on the Earth; just witness the deployment of its naval force globally and its prominence in the two continuing high-profile theaters of conflict—Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet one can be fooled by appearances.

In reality, both America’s will to fight and its economy are profoundly broken. Its economic condition is worse than that of Greece. This is inevitably leading to a situation of drawdown in all theaters where American forces are deployed. These days, any pipsqueak nation can tweak Uncle Sam’s nose and flee the scene without fear of any really powerful reprisals. This sad and sorry state of affairs is only added to by the public declarations of a president who is patently not committed to pursuing, or even attempting to recapture, any concept of American greatness.

Thus it is that the nations of Europe, realizing that their postwar protector is fleeing the scene, seek a new lease on life for nato which will contribute to the ongoing security of the Continent from threats of incursion by its enemies.

Since the end of the Cold War, nato’s membership has nearly doubled as it has absorbed former Soviet states, many of which joined the European Union. Now even Russia seeks an alliance with nato, something that Germany is keen to promote so as to secure its eastern flank from a repetition of past problems in that area. The Economist reports that “nato and Russia have resumed military contacts, which were cut off after the war in Georgia, and the two sides have agreed to a joint review of ’21st-century threats’” (July 29).

More important to Europe’s security as America continues to draw down its military presence on the Continent is the EU partnership with nato. “The EU and nato are taking further steps, hand in hand, with a view to deepening their relations. … [T]he EU has proceeded to the signing of a set of agreements with nato in order to obtain access to its infrastructure. Otherwise, the EU, especially in difficult missions, does not have sufficient capabilities to carry out peace-keeping operations by itself” (Europe’s World, March 19, 2009). It is thus that nato has become the European Union’s proxy war machine in the pursuit of the latter’s imperialist agenda.

In July, Germany’s defense minister met with Chancellor Angela Merkel and gained her full support for the submission of three alternative scenarios for a revamped Bundeswehr. Commenting on this meeting, Die Welt observes, “Angela Merkel (cdu) devotes a lot of her time to the military these days. Today the chancellor meets with Frank-Jürgen Weise, who is working on the modernization of the military administration, ordered by Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (csu). On Tuesday, Mrs. Merkel, together with her minister, took part in the pledge of 420 recruits in front of the Reichstag building. Beforehand she received Guttenberg at the Chancellery to get information on the military technicalities which are part of the imminent army reform” (July 22, translation ours).

What is at issue in terms of the reform is, in reality, a reinforcement of the old High Command structure of the German military forces, a structure which the leaders of the Allied nations following World War ii stated publicly they had eliminated with the intention that it never be resurrected to threaten the world with chaos again.

Such is the memory span of the Anglo-Saxons that the binding statement of their wartime leaders has long since faded from their minds. So, here we go again. For a third time within the duration of just one century a German High Command is being mooted to head up a revamped, high-tech German military force with emphasis on ability to strike quickly in foreign theaters. Any historian worth his salt should shudder at the thought.

So it is that as the crucial November nato summit approaches, we see the goals of two key entities merging—the EU and nato—and overarching all this is Germany’s current aggressive upgrading of its military machine.

Why is Germany important to this whole equation of revamped European security?

It’s very simple. The German Constitutional Court caught the whole of the EU off guard by creating an opt-out for Germany in respect of any EU proposal (which must be unanimous) to deploy EU forces in battle. Of all 27 EU member nations, Germany alone must refer such a proposal to its national government for decision. This effectively places Germany in charge of deciding when and how the EU will enter combat as a combined force.

The Anglo-Saxons created nato, as its first secretary general, Lord Ismay, declared, to “keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

The great paradox is that nato’s new strategic concept, in tandem with the EU’s security objectives and Germany’s “new military organization,” will result in an alliance with Russia, the Americans pushed out and the Germans raised up!