At the Vilnius summit on July 11, NATO member states will take the final decision on who will lead the treaty alliance after Stoltenberg. A sizeable vacancy, underlines former senior diplomat Pieter Feith. “First, the Secretary General heads the Council of Representatives of NATO member states at all levels,” Feith says. «From the ambassadors every week to the ministers with a certain regularity. Once or twice a year he meets the heads of government and the heads of state.’
Feith believes that Stoltenberg’s successor should get acclaim and results. “Besides, someone has to be determined,” she says. ‘That’s more or less the philosophy of NATO. For this, someone must also act as a spokesperson and spokesperson for the alliance.”
Important
It is precisely the latter that is so important in times of war and uncertainty, Feith says. A job that Stoltenberg did with panache. “He made almost no mistakes,” he says. “And NATO has also gained credibility thanks to him”.
“Stoltenberg made almost no mistakes and NATO gained credibility thanks to him”
In the nine years that Stoltenberg has been at the helm of the treaty alliance, it has experienced all kinds of crises, adds associate professor of international security cooperation Sabine Mengelberg. “The United States especially was happy when he succeeded Dane Rasmussen in 2014,” she says. When Crimea was annexed in 2014, both Rasmussen and NATO’s top military officer individually disapproved of the invasion. Stoltenberg, on the other hand, remains calm and practices quiet diplomacy in the background.’
Power
According to Mengelberg, Stoltenberg in his role as general secretary also slowly but surely gained more power and authority. “That went wrong with the invasion of Crimea, but Stoltenberg has gained more and more power with the position he takes,” he explains. “He not only reads press releases, but also expresses his opinion of him from the position of Secretary General.”