Friday, May 01, 2009

NATO != EU

I've thought about talking on this a while ago, but an article came up so I'll just link to it instead.

In the case of Somalia, it gets even messier because in addition to EU NAVFOR and NATO, we have CTF-151, all of which have different command structures and RoE despite overlapping constituent countries. For instance, Canada is serving under NATO but is also expected to contribute to CTF-151*. Turkey is in EU but will also be flying flag for CTF-151. Greece flew flag for EU and is also part of NATO.

HMCS Winnipeg has already performed a catch and release because NATO RoE doesn't allow them to do anything else. I'm not sure if that would change under CTF-151; on one hand there was the Maersk Alabama incident, on the other hand a hostage situation is different from finding some guys and guns on a trawler.

*I'm not entirely sure how since MARCOM basically only has 2 vessels free for overseas deployment at a time.

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