Adm. Rob Bauer previously said NATO countries should consider shifting to a 'war economy'
by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, November 25, 2024
The head of NATO’s Military Committee has called on European
businesses to prepare for a “wartime scenario” amid soaring tensions
between the Western military alliance and Russia.
Dutch Adm. Rob
Bauer said Western businesses must adjust to become less vulnerable to
both Russia and China. “If we can make sure that all crucial services
and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is a key part of
our deterrence,” Bauer said at a European Policy Centre event in
Brussels, according to Reuters.
Bauer said energy supplies could
be targeted or used as weapons of war. “We’re seeing that with the
growing number of sabotage acts, and Europe has seen that with energy
supply,” he said. “We thought we had a deal with Gazprom, but we
actually had a deal with Mr Putin. And the same goes for Chinese-owned
infrastructure and goods. We actually have a deal with (Chinese
President) Xi (Jinping).”
US and European officials have accused
Russia of weaponizing energy, but Moscow began reducing gas shipments to
Europe in 2022 in response to Western sanctions meant to destroy the
Russian economy.
Bauer also said Western economies were too
dependent on China. “We are naive if we think the Communist Party will
never use that power. Business leaders in Europe and America need to
realize that the commercial decisions they make have strategic
consequences for the security of their nation,” he said. “Businesses
need to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production
and distribution lines accordingly. Because while it may be the military
who wins battles, it’s the economies that win wars.”
Last year,
Bauer called for NATO countries to consider shifting to a “war economy”
where civilian factories would begin producing military goods, similar
to what the US did during World War II. “Those priorities should be
discussed about, partially, a war economy in peacetime,” he said in
January 2023.
Bauer also said at the time that NATO was “ready”
for a direct confrontation with Russia. Today, that confrontation is
much more likely following the US authorization of long-range strikes on
Russian territory with NATO missiles, a step Moscow has made clear
risks a nuclear escalation.
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