News of Norway, February 24, 2004
Coming across as anything but part of an occupying force in Iraq is proving to be quite the challenge for Second Lieutenant Pål Svanes. Even though his fortified, khaki-colored vehicle has a big Norwegian flag and the words “military engineers Norway” written on the side, he is often mistaken for being American or English by the Iraqi locals he visits.
“They see a military guy as a military guy,” he told Forsvarets Forum, a magazine for the Norwegian Armed Forces. “Even though our uniforms and cars are different from the others’, they have some trouble differentiating.”
Svanes is one of 164 Norwegian soldiers that operate around the British-controlled area around the southern Iraqi town of Basra. The Norwegian Engineer Squadron in Iraq has since its deployment last year been involved in building bridges, securing fresh water and distributing household gas to local Iraqis.
“What we’re doing,” said Chief of Defense Sigurd Frisvold when he visited the squadron in December last year, “is humanitarian work, something that means a lot for the local population.”
The Norwegian presence in Iraq and Afghanistan are two examples of where the Norwegian Armed Forces are heading: Away from a large, standardized body focused on securing and defending the homeland and towards a highly specialized, highly deployable force capable of operations around the world.
“Norway will deliver what is needed, when it is needed,” says Krohn Devold, who has been Defense Minister since September 2001.
The Norwegian Armed Forces is in the middle of a revolution bigger than anything it has seen before. The world has changed dramatically over the last 15 years, as has the challenges for the defense organization of a small country like Norway.
In an op-ed piece in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Lieutenant General Sverre Diesen claims that the entire situation is turned upside down.
“Before, we developed Armed Forces that were intended for an intense war of defense at home at the same time as they could participate in low-intensity operations with the UN abroad. Today,” he writes, “it is much more likely that we will be needing a defense organization that can participate in everything from peacekeeping to high-intensity operations abroad, while the risk for anything but peacekeeping tasks at home is small.”
Kristin Krohn Devold is now making sure the Armed Forces is adjusting to new threats to both national and global security.
“In today’s situation it is not a question of whether we are ’well’ or ’badly’ prepared for a particular war at a particular time,” she recently told listeners at the Oslo Military Society.
“The question now is whether, at any given time, our forces are truly usable and capable of delivering. That is why we are focusing on transformation,” she continued.
The Defense Minister has no trouble admitting that the organization was in dire need of change. The Norwegian deployment of troops to Kosovo in 1999 occurred three months after the war there was over. That incident, she claimed, showed that the Norwegian Armed Forces lacked the capability for rapid reaction.
“The deployment of forces to Afghanistan, and now to Iraq,” she said, “demonstrates that the Armed Forces have made an impressive, quantum leap both in their reaction capability and in their ability to deliver. We have shown that we can learn.”
In 2002, some major decisions were taken in the Norwegian Parliament – the Storting – with regards to the military organization. The aim of the reshuffle was to create a modern, flexible, high-quality force suited for the security situation of today and in the future. By changing the entire structure of the organization, both lawmakers and military officers hope to make the Armed Forces better suited to Norway’s role as an alliance partner and a NATO member.
The process will streamline the organization, meaning that the number of staff will be reduced. By 2005, the organization will have lost 5,000 man-years from a strength of 22,000 to 17,000.
In addition, more than 20 million square feet of office and storage space will be removed. The changes will save around two billion NOK (285 million USD) from the national budget – money that will be spent on modernization and improving skills.
More than 100,000 Norwegian troops have served abroad since the end of the Second World War. The first operation was the Germany Brigade in 1947, followed by a number of deployments as part of UN peacekeeping forces in a number of countries throughout the Cold War era. The biggest single engagement in this period was the UNIFIL force in Lebanon, where more than 34,000 troops served between 1978 and 1999.
The day after terrorists struck New York and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001, Norway was among the NATO members to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (also known as the Washington Treaty) of 1949. Article 5 provides that if a NATO ally [i could be wrong here]is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this as an armed attack against all members. The Norwegian presence in Afghanistan is part of Norway’s dedication to Article 5.
“Afghanistan is the biggest operation where NATO is directly involved today,” said Defense Minister Devold.
“It is very important that we are successful there.”
As a non-member of the EU, Norway depends on NATO for its national security. The development of its Armed Forces is therefore carefully adjusted to the needs NATO will have in the future.
Some voices in Norway have expressed concern over Norway’s perceived shift from deploying peacekeeping troops to the UN to deploying fighting units to NATO. According to the daily newspaper Klassekampen, only 20 of the 1,000 Norwegian troops involved in activities abroad were under UN command. The rest were under the command of NATO or other coalitions.
Another newspaper, Dagbladet, points out that if the deployable troops of the Norwegian Armed Forces are reduced as planned to 3,000 men and women by 2008, it will cover the requirements made by NATO and nothing else.
“Norway should have a different attitude,” commented Kristin Halvorsen, leader of the Socialist Left Party. “It should support the UN more systematically instead of being an obedient little nation that provides support in the areas that attract the most attention.”
Although nobody in Government has responded to the concerns, Foreign Minister Jan Petersen provided some insight as to the future of Norwegian participation in UN peacekeeping troops when he spoke to the Storting in mid-December:
“If there is a peace agreement in Sudan, the Government will be positive toward a Norwegian participation in a UN-led force once financial and other needs are made clear,” he said.
That same month, Chief of Defense Sigurd Frisvold issued a Defense Study, a document based on the long-term vision he and Defense Minister Kristin Krohn Devold share for the Norwegian Armed Forces.
“The proposals I put forward,” he stated, “will give us a modern defense, first and foremost by making it more relevant, ready, available and deployable. Thus we will achieve Armed Forces that are better prepared and available for solving the tasks given by our political authorities – both at home and abroad.”