The Impact of the Increasing Pace of Technological Developments, Particularly in the Information Sector, on the Transatlantic Alliance

Within a complex security environment, NATO now faces an information technology revolution affecting all dimensions of society and transatlantic relations. This paper argues that a revolution in military affairs, spun from the information revolution, will dramatically improve all aspects of preventing conflict or conducting operations. Key for the alliance is the technological impacts on capability to gain maximum efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility. Yet there is a widening technology and interoperability gap between the United States and other allies in NATO. While the financial costs of dissipating the gap seem large, the costs of not closing the gap are immense-ranging from comparatively benign inefficient forces to marginalizing or even dissolution of the alliance. There are a variety of elements in the possible solution set that are acceptable to both sides of the transatlantic alliance and that also can be realistically accomplished, but the time for action is now.

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