"I have always had a dream to see NATO as a new humanitarian organization, where we could use the technology, the communication, the highly educated people, and I am sure a lot of NATO people would like to do good for the world. And we need desperately somebody who can do a transport for earthquake situations and things like that," the head of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research noted.
NATO's priorities lie elsewhere. The Pentagon recently announced that it would drastically increase its defense budget for and military presence in Europe. The organization has been determined to conduct more military drills and open additional command and control centers close to Russia's borders.
The eastward expansion is also on the agenda. Oberg warned that implications of adding new members could be detrimental to the alliance. The organization runs the risk of overstretching and losing its purpose.
Oberg urged the bloc to focus on cooperating and making friends instead. We "should have policies that make other people friendly to us instead of bullying everybody and then expect them to be kind to us," he observed.
Should NATO fail to adapt to new realities, it should cease to exist, Oberg asserted. Irish freelance journalist Danielle Ryan echoed this sentiment.
"Sixty-seven years after its founding, NATO exists for no good reason. Where threats don't exist, it imagines them. Where tensions should be minimal, it heightens them. In the grander scheme of things, it serves the interests of only one of its members. It's time to call it a day," she suggested in an opinion piece for RT.