NATO

I. The North Atlantic Treaty
II. The structures and functioning of NATO
III. The missions of the Alliance
IV. Ongoing military operations and missions
V. Relations with the European Union
VI. NATO and its partners

I. The North Atlantic Treaty

The North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington on 4 April 1949, instituted the Atlantic Alliance, which at the time consisted of 10 European countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom), the United States and Canada. Other European countries joined the Alliance in 1952 (Greece and Turkey), 1955 (the Federal Republic of Germany), 1982 (Spain) and 1999 (Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic). At the Prague Summit in November 2002 the Alliance invited seven countries to join (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), which effectively became members on 29 March 2004. Albania and Croatia were invited to join the Alliance on the occasion of the Bucharest Summit of 2-4 April 2008, and will effectively do so on the occasion of the Strasbourg-Kehl Summit.

Article 10 of the Treaty provides for the admission of new members, stipulating that any European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area may be invited to accede to the Treaty.

The Treaty institutes an alliance for collective self-defence (Article 5), see “The mission of the Alliance”below) and a forum for consultation among members whenever one of them considers its security to be threatened.

II. The structures and functioning of NATO

The supreme political authority of the Alliance is the North Atlantic Council (NAC), which in its permanent session consists of the ambassadors of the allied countries. This works through consensus. Committees exist for the purposes of political consultation, defence planning and operations. The NAC and its subordinate committees work through a civilian and military structure, the International Staff (IS), headed by a Secretary General, who is traditionally a European (Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer since 2000).

The integrated military structure consists of an operational command (ACO/SHAPE, based in Mons) commanded by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), and a command responsible for modernisation of the Alliance’s military forces (Allied Command Transformation-ACT), based in Norfolk in the United States. All of NATO’s subordinate integrated staffs are subject to these commands, and in particular the three major Joint Force Commands in Brunssum, Naples and Lisbon.

III. The missions of the Alliance

After the Cold War, and alongside its traditional defence planning functions for collective defence, the Alliance also developed its missions in the military management of crises.

1/ Collective defence

Collective defence continues to be the prime mission of the Alliance. Article 5 of the Treaty refers to the right of collective self-defence as recognised by the Charter of the United Nations. It stipulates that an armed attack on one or more NATO members shall be considered an attack against all of them. NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in its history in the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

2/ Crisis management missions

In the 1990s, the Alliance moved to adapt to the new strategic environment brought about by the far-reaching changes taking place in Europe. This gave rise to the revision of the Alliance’s Strategic Concept on the occasion of the Washington Summit in April 1999. This document provides that, to strengthen security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region, the Alliance must stand ready to contribute, on a case-by-case basis and by consensus, to the effective prevention of conflicts and to play an active role in crisis management, including in crisis response operations.

On the occasion of the Prague Summit in November 2002, the Heads of State and Government decided to improve the Alliance’s capabilities. The creation of a NATO Response Force (NRF) and the reform of the NATO command structure flowed from the decisions made at this Summit.

The forthcoming NATO Summit at Strasbourg-Kehl will probably serve as the occasion to launch the renewal of the Alliance’s Strategic Concept, in order to relaunch NATO’s transformation and adapt it to the changing strategic context.

IV. Ongoing military operations and missions

1/ Operations

In the field of crisis management based on United Nations Security Resolutions, NATO is involved in operations to enhance stability in the Balkans (KFOR in Kosovo) and in Afghanistan (ISAF).

 In Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), under NATO command since August 2003, comprises more than 55,000 personnel. As mandated by the Security Council, its mission is to assist the Afghan government in promoting security. Initially established in the Afghan capital, it is now deployed across the whole of Afghanistan.

 In Kosovo, the KFOR was set up in 1999 under Security Council Resolution1244. It originally numbered nearly 50,000 personnel. With some 16,000 personnel today, the Force’s mission is still to establish and maintain a stable and secure environment in Kosovo, and to support the United Nations mission (UNMIK), in the field of peacekeeping especially.

 Following the invoking of Article 5 (collective self-defence) in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, the Alliance launched a maritime surveillance operation in the Mediterranean (Operation Active Endeavour). This operation is contributing to the fight against terrorism.

2/ Missions

NATO’s training mission in Iraq, decided at the Istanbul Summit, is providing assistance in the training of Iraqi security forces. Training is taking place in NATO’s schools in Iraq and Europe. The mission currently comprises around 300 personnel. France contributes to the financing of this mission, but has not sent any French personnel to Iraq.

In Darfur, NATO has been providing assistance to the African Union since 2005 in the fields of strategic transport for African contingents and training for African Union staff officers. The European Union is also present in Darfur, providing operational support (in the form of transporting contingents, military observers and advisers / police) and financial support to the African Union.

V. Relations with the European Union

The European Union and NATO have signed a “strategic partnership in the field of crisis management” (under the 2003 “Berlin Plus” Agreements), which provides among others for access by the European Union to the Alliance’s command resources and capabilities. The Union has availed itself of these resources on two occasions, once in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (with Operation Concordia in 2003), and currently in Bosnia and Herzegovina (with Operation Althea). Naturally, the European Union also has the capacity to plan and conduct autonomous operations with its own resources, as is currently the case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (with the EUFOR DR Congo operation in support of the United Nations, and the ongoing EUFOR Chad/CAR operation).

VI. NATO and its partners

NATO has developed relations with non-NATO allies:

The lynchpin of this approach is the Partnership for Peace Programme (PfP), which seeks to develop cooperation between NATO members and 23 partner countries in Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia on a bilateral basis. These countries are brought together in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), which provides a common forum for political dialogue. After the Bucharest Summit, the EAPC had 50 members, following the return of Malta to this Partnership.

The Founding Act of 1997 instituted a strategic partnership between NATO and Russia. This new relationship was crowned by the creation of a NATO-Russia Council (NRC) at the Rome Summit of May 2002, permitting a regular political dialogue among the 27 nations. Moreover, practical areas of cooperation between Russia and NATO were strengthened. The Alliance is progressively resuming relations with Russia in the wake of the conflict in Georgia.

NATO also maintains an intensified dialogue with Georgia (since 2006) and with Ukraine within the NATO-Ukraine Commission - NUC (set up in 1997) and the NATO-Georgia Commission - NGC (set up in 2008).

A specific cooperation programme, the Mediterranean Dialogue was instituted with seven countries around the Mediterranean rim (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) in 1994. The Istanbul Summit also proposed to the countries of the Middle East to establish cooperation programmes with the NATO, via the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. Similar to the Mediterranean Dialogue, this initiative is aimed primarily at the Gulf States.

^{Updated on February 2009}