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Editorial Note on the revised on-line edition On 11 September 2001, horrific terrorist attacks on the Pentagon in Washington and on the World Trade Centre in New York, resulted in thousands of deaths both on the ground and among the passengers and crews of highjacked civilian airliners used in the attacks. Citizens of many nationalities lost their lives. A shocked world responded by declaring solidarity with the people of the United States and taking practical steps to come to its assistance. In the following weeks, led by the United States, an unprecedented world wide coalition against terrorism was formed, involving all NATO allies and other countries united in their resolve to eliminate the terrorist threat to world security and stability. These events had a dramatic and far-reaching impact on international security as a whole. For the first time in the history of their Alliance, NATO countries invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, and declared that the armed attack against the United States would be considered as an attack against all. The significance of the above events for the Alliance and the actions taken by NATO subsequently are described in the Preface to this revised on-line edition and in Chapter 1. The information contained in this edition covers developments up to July 2002. Information concerning more recent developments affecting the Alliance as well as official statements and communiqués are accessible in the On-line library. References made in this Handbook to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are marked with an asterisk (*) referring to the following footnote: "Turkey recognises the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name".