By creating fear and instability and embarking on unilateral military adventures, corporate militarism of the United States also fosters militarism elsewhere. A major US strategy of expanding its imperial influence and promoting militarism around the globe has been the formation of international military alliances in various parts of the world. These include not only the notorious North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which is essentially an integral part of the Pentagon's world command structure, and which was recently expanded to police the world, but also 10 other joint military commands called Unified Combatant Commands. They include Africa Command (AFRICOM), Central Command (CENTCOM), European Command (EUCOM), Northern Command (NORTHCOM), Pacific Command (PACOM), and Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).
The geographic area under the "protection" of each of these Unified Combatant Commands is called Area of Responsibility (AOR). AFRICOM's area of responsibility includes US "military operations and military relations with 53 African nations - an area of responsibility covering all of Africa except Egypt." CENTCOM's area of responsibility spans many countries in the Middle East/Near East/Persian Gulf and Central Asia. It includes Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
EUCOM's area of responsibility "covers 51 countries and territories, including Europe, Iceland, Greenland, and Israel." NORTHCOM's area of responsibility "includes air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the contiguous United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles (930 km). It also includes the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida, portions of the Caribbean region to include The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands."
PACOM's area of responsibility "covers over fifty percent of the world's surface area -- approximately 105 million square miles (nearly 272 million square kilometers) -- nearly sixty percent of the world's population, thirty-six countries, twenty territories, and ten territories and possessions of the United States." SOUTHCOM's area of responsibility " encompasses 32 nations (19 in Central and South America and 13 in the Caribbean)"and 14 US and European territories. . . . It is responsible for providing contingency planning and operations in Central and South America, the Caribbean (except US commonwealths, territories, and possessions), Cuba, their territorial waters."
Together with over 800 military bases scattered over many parts of the world, this military colossus represents an ominous presence of the US armed forces all across our planet.
Instead of dismantling NATO as redundant in the post-Cold War era, it has been expanded (as a proxy for the US military juggernaut) to include many new countries in Eastern Europe all the way to the borders of Russia. Not only has it inserted itself into a number of new international relations and recruited many new members and partners, it has also arrogated to itself many new tasks and responsibilities in social, political, economic, environmental, transportation and communications arenas of the world.
NATO's new areas of "responsibility," as reflected in its latest Strategic Concept, include "human rights"; "key environmental and resource constraints, including health risks, climate change, water scarcity and increasing energy needs. . ."; "important means of communication, such as the internet, and scientific and technological research. . ."; "proliferation of ballistic missiles, of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction"; "threat of extremism, terrorism and trans-national illegal activities such as trafficking in arms, narcotics and people"; "vital communication, transport and transit routes on which international trade, energy security and prosperity depend"; the "ability to prevent, detect, defend against and recover from cyber-attacks"; and the need to "ensure that the Alliance is at the front edge in assessing the security impact of emerging technologies."
Significant global issues thus claimed to be part of NATO's expanded mission fall logically within the purview of civilian international institutions such as the United Nations. So why is the US ruling plutocracy, using NATO, now trying to supplant the United Nations and other international agencies? The reason is that due to the rise of the influence of a number of new international players such as Brazil, South Africa, Turkey, Iran, and Venezuela the UN is no longer as subservient to the global ambitions of the United States as it once was. Planning to employ the imperial military machine of NATO instead of the civilian multilateral institutions such as the UN clearly belies, once again, the self-righteous US claims of trying to spread democracy worldwide.
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