[asia-apec 1073] Fw: Corporate Buyout of NATO

[Elsie Dean]

-----Original Message-----
From: dcintern at juno.com <dcintern at juno.com>
To: wilpf-news at igc.apc.org <wilpf-news at igc.apc.org>
Date: Tuesday, April 13, 1999 7:06 AM
Subject: US: Corporate Buyout of NATO


>This article appeared in today's Washington Post.
>
>Kelly Barber,
>Jeanette Rankin Intern
>*********************************************************
>
>Count Corporate America Among NATO's Staunchest Allies
>
>                  By Tim Smart
>                  Washington Post Staff Writer
>                  Tuesday, April 13, 1999; Page E01
>
>For many Washingtonians, the NATO military alliance's upcoming
>50th-anniversary bash may end up being notable only for nightmare traffic
>tie-ups. For a few companies, though, the summit could be the ultimate
>marketing opportunity.
>A handful of top-drawer U.S. companies -- including heavyweights such as
>Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. as well as upstarts such as
>Nextel Communications Inc., a McLean-based wireless communications firm
>-- will be the gathering's hosts and as such will get to showcase their
>wares and schmooze with top military and political leaders from 44
>nations at events taking place throughout the District.
>
>A dozen companies have paid $250,000 apiece in cash or "in-kind"
>contributions for the privilege of having their chief executives serve as
>directors of the NATO summit's host committee. The group is a
>private-sector support system raising $8 million to finance the April
>23-25 event.
>
>While company representatives express disdain at the notion they will be
>lobbying NATO officials for business, many of the firms on the host
>committee sell precisely the kinds of products most in demand by the
>emerging economies of Eastern and Central Europe -- which include NATO's
>newest members and some prospective additions. Ameritech, for instance,
>is interested in running international phone networks. United
>Technologies Corp. views emerging or developing countries as a big
>potential market for its Otis elevators and Carrier air-conditioning and
>heating units. Both Ford and GM have auto plants throughout Europe. Their
>target audience? Heads of state and key cabinet ministers from the 19
>NATO members, accompanied by leaders from 25 nations that make up the
>Partnership for Peace, countries with aspirations to join the alliance.
>The guests will be accessible for the kind of low-key lobbying and wining
>and dining customary at such international gatherings. About 1,700
>dignitaries are expected to attend -- along with a media contingent of
>3,000.
>
> "The business community was in it from Day One," said Alan John Blinken,
>a former U.S. ambassador to Belgium and investment banker who is heading
>the host committee. "In a lot of these cases, they came to us -- we
>didn't solicit them."
>
> A second tier of firms, including Washington powerhouse law and lobbying
>firms Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, and Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard,
>McPherson and Hand, are members of the committee. Other companies, such
>as Eastman Kodak Co. and missile manufacturer Raytheon Co., are
>participating but taking a less public role. And more are still being
>courted. "They're actually wooing our CEO right now," said Gerald Robbins
>of 3Com Corp.'s Washington office. The communications networking company
>has a contract with NATO to supply equipment for the military alliance's
>AWACS surveillance and control planes that are being flown over Kosovo.
>"NATO is a big customer," Robbins said.
>
>Some host committee members, including Nextel, also hope to attract the
>attention of top U.S. government officials at the summit. The company is
>providing almost 2,000 of Motorola Inc.'s I-1000 combination cell phone
>and two-way radios to visiting foreign dignitaries and members of the
>State Department's summit staff. Four hundred of the $299 phones will be
>embossed with a special anniversary emblem.
>
>Hungary, one of NATO's three newest members, held a reception last week
>at its embassy here, where Nextel's general manager, Nick Sample, proudly
>displayed one of the phones. Beaming, he told of how the product had
>recently been added to the General Services Administration's list of
>approved merchandise, allowing government purchasing officers to order
>the wireless communications gear. Having Nextel phones widely available
>to high-level bureaucrats as well as foreign heads of state is the kind
>of marketing that can only be labeled as priceless.
>
>For the guests, it's free, as Nextel is providing the phones gratis.
>"We've had quite a few inquiries already from the FBI, the State
>Department and the CIA," Sample said.
>
>Corporate support for the NATO summit is an outgrowth of the active role
>many U.S. companies, particularly defense contractors such as Lockheed
>Martin Corp. of Bethesda, have played in the move to enlarge NATO byond
>its traditional U.S.-Western Europe axis. U.S. defense companies lobbied
>hard in Congress in recent years to admit the former Soviet satellites
>Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.
>
>"Companies like Lockheed Martin, for example, and all of them were active
>with me overseas," said former congressman Gerald B.H. Solomon, who
>headed a House task force appointed by former House speaker Newt Gingrich
>to push the membership issue.
>
>Solomon, now a private lobbyist, said he traveled throughout Eastern and
>Central Europe spreading the message that if the United States was going
>to be NATO's principal military power, supplying most of its high-tech
>weaponry, then U.S. defense firms should receive contracts to rearm the
>former Soviet states.
>
>"We wanted them to buy American," Solomon said.
>
>Corporate representatives say private-sector underwriting of an
>international meeting for sovereign nations is standard business practice
>these days, though the NATO event is a far bigger draw than other
>international get-togethers.
>
>"This is a very unique beast," said Sally Painter, a lobbyist for Tenneco
>Inc. on leave from the auto parts and packaging conglomerate while
>serving as chief operating officer of the host committee. Painter,
>previously a top aide to then-commerce secretary Ronald H. Brown, was
>involved in international business development for Tenneco. "These are
>global corporations that understand the role stability plays with
>investment. There's no quid pro quo at all."
>
>Jim Christy, vice president of government relations for TRW Inc., said it
>makes sense for companies, rather than the member nations, to foot the
>bill for such events.
>
>"Whether it's the [Group of Seven] summit in Denver or the Summit of the
>Americas in Miami, there are not government funds available," Christy
>said, noting that TRW Chairman Joseph Gorman was personally approached by
>Blinken on behalf of the host committee.
>
>"My chairman is public-spirited and agreed to do so," Christy said.
>
>TRW, though it has no contracts to provide products to NATO, is one of a
>handful of companies providing critical communications and defense
>supplies to the U.S. military. Along with donating $250,000 in cash to
>the summit, TRW is developing its World Wide Web site.
>
>"We were hit up for the Summit of the Americas" Christy said, adding that
>TRW did not contribute money for the meeting but built the summit's Web
>site for free.
>
>Blinken said that the expansion of NATO and the pro-Western tilt of
>countries formerly tied to the Soviet Union have created "major new
>trading partners" for the United States but that today the interest in
>new markets comes not only from arms merchants but also from a variety of
>technology firms, including Ameritech Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc. and
>Nextel.
>
>"Most of the companies are not companies you would have expected in the
>old day, companies selling bombs and missiles, what have you," Blinken
>said. "You've got communications companies."
>
>Yet a good number of the firms on the host committee sell weaponry.
>Although the economic crisis that spread throughout Asia and other parts
>of the world last summer has somewhat cooled their enthusiasm, new NATO
>members such as Poland and other countries such as Turkey are viewed as
>prime candidates for U.S. weapons. Poland has been considering new
>fighter jets from either Lockheed or Boeing Co.
>
>TRW's Christy said the summit was low on the radar of most companies just
>a couple of months ago, when the events committee made its first
>solicitations. But the fighting in Yugoslavia has focused attention on
>the gathering.
>
>"All of a sudden," he said, "now this is beginning to burnish a little
>into the consciousness."
>
>NATO Access
>
>Here are the 12 companies that have paid $250,000 to have an executive
>(in parentheses) serve as one of the directors on the NATO summit's host
>committee:
>
>                  Ameritech (Richard Notebaert)
>                  DaimlerChrysler (Robert Liberatore)
>                  Boeing (Christopher W. Hansen)
>                  Ford Motor (Jacques A. Nasser)
>                  General Motors (George A. Peapples)
>                  Honeywell (Michael R. Bonsignore)
>                  Lucent Technologies (Richard A. McGinn)
>                  Motorola (Arnold Brenner)
>                  Nextel Communications (Daniel F. Akerson)
>                  SBC Communications (Edward E. Whitacre Jr.)
>                  TRW (Joseph Gorman)
>                  United Technologies (George David)
>
>                  SOURCE: NATO Anniversary Summit Host Committee
>
>© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
>___________________________________________________________________
>You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
>Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
>or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
>