Q1/2021 - NATO

NATO-Außenministertreffen, März 2021

Beim Treffen der NATO-Außenminister am 23. und 24. März 2021 in Brüssel wurde auf die neuen Gefahren hybrider Kriegsführung und die Bedrohung durch Cyberangriffe verwiesen. „Assertive and authoritarian powers, and non-state actors, challenge the rules-based international order, including through hybrid and cyber threats, the malicious use of new technologies, as well as other asymmetric threats[1].“

Rede von NATO-Generalsekretär Jens Stoltenberg beim SciencesPo Youth & Leaders Summit, 18. Januar 2021

Bei einer Diskussion anlässlich des „SciencesPo Youth & Leaders Summit“ der Paris School of International Affairs am 18. Januar 2021 äußerte sich NATO-Generalsekretär Jens Stoltenberg ausführlich zum Thema „Cyber und NATO“[2]. Er bekräftigte den Beschluss der NATO, Cyber als einen eigenständigen militärischen Operationsraum zu betrachten. Er wiederholte, dass Artikel 5 des NATO-Vertrages – die Beistandsgarantie, derzufolge ein Angriff auf ein NATO-Mitglied als ein Angriff gegen alle NATO-Mitglieder zu werten ist – auch für den Cyberbereich gilt und betonte, dass eine Verteidigungsmaßnahme bei einer Cyberattacke sich nicht auf Cyberoperationen beschränken würde. Stoltenberg verwies auf die gewachsenen defensiven und offensiven Cyberkapazitäten der NATO, auf das NATO Cyber Operation Center und auf die regelmäßigen Cybermanöver, die die NATO seit geraumer Zeit durchführt, um für alle Eventualitäten gewappnet zu sein. 

Rede von NATO-Generalsekretär Jens Stoltenberg am Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) der Stanford University, 9. März 2021

NATO-Generalsekretär Jens Stoltenberg äußerte sich bei einem Auftritt an der Stanford- Universität am 9. März 2021 zu den Herausforderungen hybrider Kriegsführung. Stoltenberg betonte, dass neue militärische Technologien stets mit Möglichkeiten und Risiken verbunden waren. „Every technology can be used in good ways or bad ways. That has been the case always, but in one way, even more so now, as we see so many new and disruptive technologies with enormous potential, both in a constructive but also in a destructive way.“ Die heutigen neuen und disruptiven Technologien wie künstliche Intelligenz, autonome Systeme, Big Data, Biotech, Gesichtserkennung und andere ändern die Natur des Krieges. Dies sei nicht einfach zu verstehen und die Konsequenzen seien noch nicht absehbar. „I think it’s hard to grasp, hard to understand, for good or for bad, how technologies are now changing the nature of any potential future conflict.“ Die NATO müsse auf alle Eventualitäten vorbereitet sein, auch weil es mit China und Russland zwei Herausforderer gibt, die in diesen neuen technologischen Bereichen enorme Fortschritte gemacht haben[3].

Rede des stellvertretenden NATO-Generalsekretärs Mircea Geoană vor dem Sonderausschuss des Europäischen Parlaments zu „Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age“, 5. März 2021

In einer Rede vor dem Sonderausschuss des Europäischen Parlaments zu „Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age“ (AIDA-Ausschuss) hat sich am 5. März 2021 der stellvertretende NATO-Generalsekretär Mircea Geoană ausführlich zum Thema Cybersicherheit und künstliche Intelligenz (KI) geäußert[4]. KI verändere unser grundlegendes Verständnis von Sicherheit, einschließlich militärischer Sicherheit. Neu sei, das sogenannte „Dual-Use-Technologien“ nicht mehr primär im militärischen Sektor, sondern in der Privatwirtschaft entwickelt würden. Dies stelle das Militär vor neue Herausforderungen. Er verwies auf den Expertenbericht „NATO 2030“ und die von den NATO-Verteidigungsministern im Februar 2021 verabschiedete „Strategy on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies“[5].

Mehr zum Thema
Q1/2021NATO
  1. [1] NATO Foreign Ministerial Statement Issued by the NATO Foreign Ministers, Brüssel, 24. März 2021, in: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_182648.htm
  2. [2] NATO 2030 - Safeguarding peace in an unpredictable world, Keynote speech by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Sciences PO Youth & Leaders Summit, 18. Januar 2021: „First on the cyber. NATO has recognised the importance of cyber over the last years, and more and more so. Not so long time ago, we actually decided that a cyber-attack can trigger Article Five, meaning that we regard a potential cyber-attack as damaging, as serious, as a conventional attack. So if we have a serious cyber-attack, we can decide to trigger Article 5 – one for all, all for one – as our Collective Defence clause. We don’t have to respond in cyber. That’s up to us to decide. But, a cyber-attack can trigger Article Five. And that demonstrates the seriousness of a potential cyber-attack. Cyber-attacks take place daily, so we cannot trigger Article 5 every day. But, we send the message that, if needed, we trigger Article 5 as response to a cyber-attack. Second, we have established cyber as an operational domain alongside land, air and sea. And that’s, in a way, to make sure that we have the best way to organise, to plan, to exercise our cyber defences. And it is absolutely impossible to foresee a conflict in the future which doesn’t include a cyber dimension, because it is so important for everything we do. And, of course, cyber is also integrated in our other capabilities: our new aircraft, our ships, whatever it is, they have cyber elements. They have cyber as a part of what they do. And, therefore, cyber is extremely important for all our defence capabilities. We have also created a new Cyberspace Operations Centre and we have established a malware information-sharing platform, where we’re also working with the European Union to share a real-time information about malware cyber-attacks. We also have teams where we can deploy, help Allies who are under cyber-attacks. The last thing I would say is that: perhaps the most important thing is that we share best practices, we help each other and we have big exercises. Because cyber is partly about defending the NATO networks to NATO operations and NATO missions. But, of course, it’s also very much about helping Allies to defend their systems. And we do that by sharing information, by conducting exercises and sharing best practices and constantly adapting and improving the way we do cyber defences in NATO. Sorry, one more last thing, and that is that we have also started to integrate what we call ‘national cyber effects’, sometimes also referred to as ‘offensive cyber’ into our planning and our missions and operations. We have seen the importance of these kinds of cyber effects in fighting Daesh/ISIS. NATO Allies were instrumental in attacking the home pages, the networks, the cyber capabilities of Daesh in Iraq and Syria. That was of great importance because Daesh/ISIS used cyber to recruit, to spread their information, to finance and to conduct operations. So be able to penetrate these systems with offensive cyber is also part of what NATO Allies do and where NATO is working together on these issues.“ In: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_180709.htm?selectedLocale=en
  3. [3] Conversation between NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Rose Gottemoeller, Payne Distinguished Lecturer at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University, 10. März 2021: „I think that what we have to do is at least three things. First of all, we need to invest. One of the reasons why we have pledged to invest more is that that’s the only way to keep our technological edge. The best way to develop new technologies and to also apply them in military systems and capabilities is, of course, to invest in new, modern systems. So when we have new, modern fighter jets, we use new technology in them. NATO just had some new drones deployed - ground surveillance drones we have deployed in Sigonella in Italy. The drones themselves, they’re ... new and excellent, but the most impressive thing is the technology we put into the drones. So when we decided to invest more at the Wales summit, NATO summit, in 2014, we decided to invest more, but also better – meaning that we also decided that 20 percent of our defence budget should go to research and development and investment in new capabilities. That is driving technological change and driving the implementation of new technologies in military capabilities. So, spending: extremely important. Second, NATO has always had a role to make sure that the Allies can operate together – interoperability. This has been a basic task for NATO. Up till it has been, you know, about fuel standards, so we can fuel each other’s planes and ships and whatever it is; spare parts that the different nations can use, so basic standards. This is even more important when we have extremely advanced systems, because we must avoid a kind of technological gap where Allies are not able to operate together, where we have planes or ships or whatever or soldiers’ communications systems that cannot communicate, they have to be connected and NATO has to help to set those standards to make sure that 30 Allies can operate together, also with new, disruptive technologies. And thirdly, I think that NATO has an important role to play when it comes to addressing some of the serious and difficult ethical questions related to these new technologies: arms control issues. How do we do arms control in cyberspace? And then when it comes to Silicon Valley, I strongly believe that we need to work with the private sector. We need to engage with them. We are looking into new, innovative ways of finding funding and also working with start-ups. And I think that for NATO it is extremely important what is going on in Silicon Valley. Traditionally, it was, you know, government programmes that was driving technological change: nuclear, GPS, the Internet is actually a result of government technological development. Now, we are more dependent on the private sector and we need to work with them. And therefore, part of the NATO 2030 agenda is also about technology, working with the private sector, innovative ways of building partnerships with the private sector.“ In: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_182018.htm?selectedLocale=en
  4. [4] Opening remarks by NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană at the European Parliament’s Special Committee of Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age (AIDA), 5. März 2021: „New technologies, including artificial intelligence, big data and autonomy, are changing the way we live and work. And they also change not only the ways wars are waged and won but the very definition of security. And today’s developments differ from many previous defence innovation periods, in that they are often dual-use and largely driven by the civilian private sector, which is not the case in the past. So technology and the world, they’re moving fast. And we must move even faster to maintain our edge. We must identify, understand and adopt new technologies – at speed and at scale. While mitigating any risks or advantage potential adversaries and competitors might seek. This is exactly what we do here at NATO. At the last meeting in December 2019, NATO Leaders adopted a comprehensive roadmap on emerging and disruptive technologies. And at last month’s Defence Ministerial meeting, Allies agreed a coherent strategy for its implementation. It sets out ways to work with partners, academia and of course the private sector, to develop new technologies more quickly, strengthen our industrial base, and protect against adversarial technology transfers. As part of his NATO 2030 initiative to future-proof our Alliance, the Secretary General of NATO has proposed a NATO defence innovation initiative to promote better transatlantic cooperation on critical technologies. As the only place that brings Europe and North America together every day, NATO is an important transatlantic forum for collaboration and coordination also on emerging technologies, including on standard setting“. In: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_181929.htm?selectedLocale=en
  5. [5] New focus on emerging and disruptive technologies helps prepare NATO for the future, 3. März 2021, in https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_181901.htm