Defense News reports that “America’s top general plans to push his NATO counterparts to increase security contributions in southern Europe along the Mediterranean at a meeting of the alliance’s uniformed leaders this week.”  

“Instability and insurgent network activity across Northern Africa in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Morocco and Tunisia — and the proliferation of that type of activity into and across Europe — has been increasingly worrying security officials in recent years.”  

“’My personal advice to my fellow [chiefs of defense] in NATO is that the southern flank of NATO deserves far more attention than it currently receives from NATO,’ Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said May 14 at the Atlantic Council think tank.”