Nato meets to heal rifts

By Jonathan Marcus BBC defence correspondent

This week's meeting of Nato foreign ministers, which starts on Tuesday in Madrid, has been billed by one insider as "a recovery session", an opportunity for the alliance to bounce back from the Iraq crisis and restore the organisation's sense of purpose.

Last November in Prague the alliance seemed to be striding towards a brighter future.

It invited seven new members to join its ranks.

The war in Iraq divided Nato members

Nato spokesmen insisted that it was not jut premature but silly to speak of the organisation's demise.

How, they asked, could this be said when many countries were still eagerly waiting to join?

But then, of course, came the Iraq crisis.

It was not so much that France, Germany and Belgium opposed US war plans in the Gulf - that was not a Nato issue.

But they did take the view that calls from Turkey for Nato military assistance were at best premature.

They saw this as an attempt by Washington to get a reluctant Nato to give at least tacit support for President Bush's adventure in the Gulf, and they said a resounding "no".

Expanding horizons

But the row over Iraq was not only a US-European dispute - it was also a row within the heart of Europe itself.

Britain, Spain, Poland and others sided with the Americans.

Peacekeepers are struggling to maintain security in Afghanistan

Amidst the bitterness and recriminations many saw the crisis as heralding the end of Nato as a useful and coherent tool for gaining consensus.

But the alliance's balance sheet over recent months has not been all bad.

There has, for example, been some limited progress in encouraging European members to bolster their defence capabilities.

Nato and the EU have agreed in broad terms about how Nato assets might be used for European military operations.

In response to those who argue that the divisions over Iraq condemn Nato to a life of growing irrelevance, the organisation's champions point to its widening geographical horizons.

In August it will take over command of the international stabilisation force in Kabul.

And only this week Nato agreed to provide vital logistical and other assistance to one of its newest members, Poland, which is set to play a prominent role in peace-keeping and security operations in Iraq.

Allies old and new

There will be no Nato flag as such in either Afghanistan or in Iraq but as the world's leading multinational military contractor, the alliance is proving its new-found flexibility.

If Nato is to remain relevant it is going to have to become a very different organisation

Nato enthusiasts also point to a range of other internal initiatives, not least the revamping of its military command, as a sign that a new Nato is emerging better suited to the security challenges of the 21st century.

But the critics remain sceptical. Poland's key role in Iraq is just one indication of the changing dynamics within what is set to be a growing alliance.

Who would have thought that the Warsaw government would emerge so quickly as one of the alliance's military and political heavyweights?

Size, as much as politics, suggests that Nato may increasingly be turning into a coalition of the willing.

There is some truth, to use the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's famous phrase, of the emergence of "a new Europe" within Nato, potentially at odds with some of its once stalwart members like Germany and France.

If Nato is to remain relevant it is going to have to become a very different organisation.

And it cannot remain immune from the wider diplomatic tussles and tensions that run as an undercurrent within the transatlantic community.

Whatever the lofty rhetoric in Madrid, the scars of the Iraq crisis linger, as do tensions between the United States and at least some of its European allies.