NATO is so busy in these areas right now. That raises a number of very difficult issues among the European members of NATO and in the United States, so that reaching out to take on burdens in the Caucasus seems to me to be a very unrealistic expectation on the part of countries there. There has been much talk recently in Azerbaijan about NATO forces providing security for the proposed Baku - Ceyhan oil pipeline. That s not NATO s job. NATO s job is to prevent wars and to try to restore peace.
Pipelines are a law-enforcement problem within countries.
The only way that pipelines are going to be enforced is by the countries through which these pipelines pass by having effective government, effective police and law-enforcement . To invite NATO to come in and do this is an open admission on the part of the countries that would encourage it that they can t rule their own countries. There s a little bit of that impression conveyed by Azerbaijan recently in raising this kind of question. It does not look like a serious step on the part of Azerbaijani government. It looks more like a cute ploy.