History of SHAPE and Allied Command Operations

The Creation of NATO’s Integrated Military Command Structure for Europe

On April 4, 1949 twelve nations from Western Europe and North America signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C. A key feature of this treaty is Article 5, in which the signatory members agreed that “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.”

Initially, however, the alliance was not very well prepared to carry out the mission of defending its territory. In addition to grave shortages of troops and equipment, there was no command structure to direct the overall defense of Western Europe.

All this changed after the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 in which fears where raised s that a similar threat could soon face Europe. The nations of the alliance agreed to increase their defence efforts began working on the creation of an integrated military command structure with an overall commander for NATO forces in Europe.

Selecting the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) was easy, since everyone’s first choice was the popular and respected U.S. Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had led allied forces in Europe during World War II. On December 19, 1950 the North Atlantic Council announced the appointment of General Eisenhower as the first SACEUR.

Gen. Eisenhower arrived in Paris on January 1, 1951 and quickly set to work with a small multi-national planning group to devise a structure for the new command, Allied Command Europe (ACE) and its new headquarters, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE).

This “SHAPE Planning Group” worked in a temporary headquarters located in the Hotel Astoria in central Paris while construction of a permanent facility began at Rocquencourt, just outside the city.

The SHAPE planners benefited greatly from the existing plans, headquarters, and personnel of the Western Union Defence Organisation (the military arm of NATO’s European predecessor, created by the Brussels Treaty of 1948), which were all incorporated into ACE, so within a few months the basic plans for ACE were ready.

On April 2, 1951 General Eisenhower signed the activation order for Allied Command Europe and its headquarters at SHAPE. On the same day ACE’s subordinate headquarters in Northern and Central Europe were activated, with the Southern Region following in June. In July 1951 SHAPE’s new headquarters complex in Rocquencourt opened for business

The Early Years of SHAPE and Allied Command Europe

Allied personnel at SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters continued to refine the plans and preparations for the defence of Western Europe, while the senior officers of Allied Command Europe - General Eisenhower and the equally famous Deputy SACEUR, British Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein - made a number of visits to the member nations to raise their spirits and encourage them to increase their defence efforts.

When Gen. Eisenhower left SHAPE in May 1952 to begin his successful candidacy for the presidency of the United States, much progress had already been made and there was a new, optimistic mood in Europe.

Just a few months earlier the North Atlantic Council, meeting at Lisbon, had agreed to very ambitious force structure goals that included a total of up to 90 divisions for NATO, but these goals were never achieved as the alliance soon began to look for less costly ways to defend Europe - the so-called “New Approach” - that relied more on the use of nuclear weapons.

These changes began under Eisenhower’s successor, Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, who had gained fame as the commander of United Nations forces during the Korean War and they continued under Gen. Alfred M. Gruenther, who became SACEUR in July 1953 after having served as Chief of Staff for both of his predecessors. By 1957 the switch to the doctrine of “massive retaliation” in the event of aggression had become officially recognised in NATO’s new strategy document, MC 14/2.

During this period ACE grew larger as three new members joined the Alliance - Greece and Turkey in 1952, followed by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955. History was made in 1956 when the first Air Force officer, General Lauris B. Norstad, became SACEUR. General Norstad skilfully led ACE through a difficult period marked by a dangerous Cold War confrontation in Berlin that began in 1958 and reached a high point with the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961.

He also oversaw the beginning of the evolution of NATO’s strategy away from complete reliance on nuclear weapons to defend Europe against aggression and towards a more flexible policy in which forward-deployed forces would serve as NATO’s “Shield”, while the nuclear retaliatory forces remained NATO’s “Sword” for use in defending against a major attack.

Following Gen. Norstad’s retirement in January 1963, Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer took over the leadership of ACE. He played an important role in the further development of NATO’s strategy away from “massive retaliation” and towards the new doctrine that became known as “flexible response”. But his tenure as SACEUR became increasingly characterised by the growing estrangement between French President Charles de Gaulle and the alliance.

SHAPE Finds a New Home

One of the most significant events in the history of Allied Command Europe is France’s withdrawal from NATO’s integrated military structure, which made it necessary for SHAPE and several other ACE headquarters to leave French territory.

The split between France and NATO’s military structure had been developing for a number of years, as successive French governments had become increasingly dissatisfied with what they perceived as Anglo-American domination of the command structure and insufficient French influence throughout the command.

By late December 1965 French President Charles de Gaulle was ready to take action. He had just been elected for the second time, France had acquired its own nuclear capability, his attempts to establish a Franco-British–American Security Directorate and gain some French control over American nuclear weapons based in France had failed, and he sought a more independent role for France in order to maximise its global influence and status.

President de Gaulle also disagreed with the United States’ intention to replace the strategy of “Massive Retaliation” with “Flexible Response” because he believed that this meant a weakening of the U.S. commitment to defend Europe with nuclear weapons. Increasingly critical of the developments in NATO, he described the military integration practised at SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters as obsolete and said that it was designed to ensure French subordination to U.S. policy.

In February 1966 President de Gaulle stated that the changed world situation “stripped of justification” NATO’s military integration and that France was therefore re-establishing her sovereignty over French territory. As a result, all forces within France’s borders would have to come under French control by April 1969. Soon afterward, France announced that it was withdrawing from the headquarters of Allied Command Europe and that SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) must leave French territory by April 1967.

The allies attempted unsuccessfully to persuade the French government to reconsider, and France then withdrew the vast majority of its military personnel from NATO military headquarters in July 1966.
The allies moved quickly to find new hosts for the headquarters that would have to leave France. They decided to move NATO’s political headquarters from French territory as well.

The Netherlands was selected to host AFCENT and Belgium became the host nation for both NATO and SHAPE. Gen. Lemnitzer had hoped that SHAPE could be located near to NATO Headquarters, as had been the case in Paris but the Belgian authorities decided that SHAPE should be located at least 50 kilometres from Brussels, NATO’s new location, because SHAPE was a major wartime military target. They also said that SHAPE had to be placed on land already owned by the government in order to limit costs and construction time.

The Belgian government then offered Camp Casteau, a 200-hectare Belgian Army summer training camp near Mons, which was an area in serious need of additional economic investment. To overcome SHAPE’s objections about the distance from Brussels, the Belgian government agreed to build a high-speed motorway connecting Mons and Brussels. In September 1966 NATO agreed that Belgium should host SHAPE at Casteau.

Six and a half months remained before the French deadline for SHAPE to leave France would expire. A massive seven-day-a-week building program began, co-ordinated between the Belgian central and local authorities, the building consortium and SHAPE. Highest priority was given to building command and control facilities.

SHAPE closed its facility at Rocquencourt near Paris on 30 March 1967, and the next day held a ceremony to mark the opening of the new headquarters at Casteau. Gen. Lemnitzer called the construction effort “a miracle of achievement” and praised the Belgian authorities and workmen for their efforts to ensure that SHAPE had a new headquarters in a remarkably short time.

The Long Cold War

Although no longer part of the integrated command structure, France was still a member of the alliance itself, so one of the first major tasks of SHAPE after the move to Belgium was to negotiate arrangements with the French authorities to co-ordinate France’s military role and contribution to NATO in the event of a Warsaw Pact attack. After NATO adopted the new military strategy of “Flexible Response” in December 1967, SHAPE began a major review of its plans and forces to bring them into line with the new strategy.

In 1968 the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia and overthrew the reformist government of Alexander Dubcek. SHAPE monitored this crisis closely and advised NATO Headquarters about the military implications of the Soviet invasion, which increased the number of combat ready Red Army units deployed very close to the Federal Republic of Germany.

During the tenure of the sixth SACEUR, Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster, SHAPE’s activities were influenced by a number of important international developments: the shifting strategic balance in favour of the USSR, efforts to achieve East-West Détente, the increasing involvement of the United States in the Vietnam war, the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War, the subsequent oil crisis of 1973 and the 1974 Cyprus Crisis, which resulted in Greece’s withdrawal of her forces from NATO.

SHAPE analysed the impact for NATO of the on-going negotiations over mutual and balanced force reductions” between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. SHAPE attempted to minimise the adverse effects of the desires of several allies (Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States) to reduce their forces stationed in continental Europe.

In 1970 SHAPE produced a major study of alliance’s defence problems in the 1970’s, which influenced the alliance’s strategic planning during the next decade. The study addressed force reductions and recommended numerous improvements in ACE’s conventional and nuclear forces and procedures.

The next SACEUR, U.S. Army Gen. Alexander M. Haig, placed great emphasis on improving the “Three Rs” - Readiness, Rationalisation and Reinforcement - in order to counter-balance the growing military capabilities of the Warsaw Pact. One of SHAPE’s major tasks during this period was to study how to improve the command and control and flexibility of NATO forces in Europe.

SHAPE played a major role in planning and implementing the NATO Long Term Defence Improvement Programme, which profoundly changed NATO forces in the 1980s and beyond. One of the most important innovations was NATO’s decision to establish the NATO Airborne Early Warning Force, which was strongly supported by SHAPE.

Improvements were also made in the quality and integration of communications and Command and Control systems, in particular the NATO Air Defence Ground Environment for coordination of air defence. In 1975 Gen. Haig also introduced a major new NATO exercise programme called Autumn Forge, whose best known element was the REFORGER (Return of Forces to Germany) series.

These exercises brought together national and NATO exercises, improved their training value and annually tested the ability of the Alliance’s North American members to reinforce Europe rapidly. SHAPE also conducted extremely important planning to modernise NATO’s Theatre Nuclear Forces in Europe.

Gen. Haig implemented a long overdue realignment of the command structure in South Eastern Europe and he also made a significant change in the senior leadership of SHAPE in order to reflect Germany’s increasing contribution to Allied Command Europe. In 1978 Gen. Gerd Schmueckle became the first German Deputy SACEUR.

Gen. Haig’s high profile attracted both positive and negative attention, with the latter taking the form of an attempt by terrorists to assassinate him near SHAPE in 1979.

The “Dual Track” Decade: Weapons Modernisation and East-West Negotiations
By the late 1970s the Soviet Union had greatly improved its military capabilities. NATO responded in December 1979 by adopting its “Dual Track” policy, under which NATO would modernise its theatre nuclear weapons with American Cruise and Pershing II missiles to be based in Europe but would also actively seek to negotiate an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union, which if successful would make it unnecessary for NATO to deploy those missiles.

The initial result of this decision was a worsening of relations between NATO and the Warsaw Pact rapidly worsened and massive anti-nuclear demonstrations in some NATO countries.

Under the leadership of the eighth SACEUR, U.S. Army Gen. Bernard W. Rogers, SHAPE was closely involved with the deployment of Cruise and Pershing II missiles while at the same time working to inform the public about the need for these weapons to counter the growing Soviet military threat.

Gen. Rogers emphasised that NATO’s inadequate conventional military forces meant that in the event of a Warsaw Pact attack against Allied Command Europe, NATO would have to quickly resort to use of nuclear weapons. To improve NATO’s conventional defence capability, Gen. Rogers advocated the new “Follow-on Forces Attack” (FOFA) Concept, which proposed to counter a Warsaw Pact invasion by making deep conventional attacks against Warsaw Pact second and third echelon forces to prevent them from reaching NATO’s defensive positions.

Gen. Rogers also played an important role in negotiating Greece’s re-integration of its armed forces into Allied Command Europe in 1980 and the resulting changes in southern region command and control arrangements. These issues required protracted and skillful diplomacy and tactful handling of Greek and Turkish interests and concerns.

Following imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981, the long Polish Crisis began, with the Solidarity movement pitted against Polish Army Gen. Jaruzelski’s government. SHAPE provided NATO Headquarters considerable advice about how to respond to the evolving Polish crisis, and what military measures would be necessary in the event of a Soviet intervention or civil war in Poland.

Other key SHAPE activities included the production of the first Rapid Reinforcement Concept, SACEUR’s Conceptual Military Framework to assist national defence planning and the ACE Long Term Infrastructure Plan. The latter still underpins many NATO military activities and operations.

One very visible piece of long-term infrastructure is the SHAPE Bunker, which was begun in 1980 and completed in 1985. However, SHAPE’s most important work during this period was associated with nuclear arms control and improved nuclear plans and procedures.

SHAPE helped NATO implement the 1983 “Montebello Decision”, which involved the withdrawal of 1,400 nuclear warheads from Europe, and recommended future ACE nuclear weapons requirements. SHAPE also analysed on NATO’s behalf the implications of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) negotiations, which gathered impetus in the mid-1980’s as relations between NATO and the Warsaw Pact improved following Mikhail Gorbachev’s assumption of power in the Soviet Union.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev’s proposal to eliminate INF missiles evoked strong criticism from SACEUR Rogers, who feared that it placed NATO on “the slippery slope of de-nuclearization” and rendered it more vulnerable to blackmail or attack by the Warsaw Pact. Gen. Rogers’ opposition to the proposed INF agreement played a major role in his retirement in 1987.

The End of The Cold War Transforms the Alliance

SHAPE now entered one of the most remarkable periods in modern European history. During the tenure of the ninth SACEUR, U.S. Army Gen. John R. Galvin, SHAPE helped NATO respond to a series of extremely complex and momentous changes: the end of the Cold War marked by the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the unification of Germany one year later, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the break-up of the Soviet Union itself in 1991, rapidly improving East-West relations, the “Springtime of Nations” in Eastern Europe, Military Cooperation with former members of the Warsaw Pact, and calls for a “Peace Dividend” and the transformation of NATO itself.

During the final stages of the Cold War SHAPE struggled to articulate the need for deterrence and viable defensive plans and forces. In 1990 SHAPE began a radical review of ACE nuclear plans, forces and targeting policy to take into account the end of the Cold War and NATO’s new Strategy, which was officially adopted in 1991.

SHAPE also coordinated the safe withdrawal of American chemical and intermediate range nuclear weapons from Europe. From 1990 onward SHAPE played an important role in NATO’s efforts to increase contacts with Soviet military leaders in order to convince them of NATO’s peaceful intentions. In 1991 SHAPE established a Military Contacts Cell to foster military cooperation with former Warsaw Pact members. SHAPE’s “Right Mix” Studies changed ACE training and exercises to reduce their former Cold War focus and make them more relevant to new operational demands.

Studies of NATO’s future force structure resulted in the decision to establish the ACE Rapid Reaction Corps and ensure more flexible force structures that were appropriate to the post-Cold War environment.

SHAPE also provided considerable support to the negotiations that resulted in the Conventional Forces in Europe arms control treaty in 1990 and then worked to bring allied defence planning into line with the developments in arms control. In response to desires for major defence savings in the form of a “Peace Dividend” and also for a greater European role in ACE, SHAPE began a reorganisation of all ACE headquarters in 1990, which resulted in a 25% reduction in staff and Europeans taking over several influential posts previously held by American officers.

Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, SHAPE implemented precautionary measures to ensure the security of NATO’s Mediterranean members and prevent the spread of tension and conflict. Such measures included increased coverage of the area by NATO Airborne Early Warning aircraft, deployment of NATO naval forces to deal with any threats to shipping in the Mediterranean, provision of significant logistics and air defence support to Turkey, and the deployment of the ACE Mobile Force (Air) to Turkey in January 1991. While not a direct participant in the Gulf War, Allied Command Europe played a major role in supporting those NATO member states threatened by the conflict.

Soon after the end of the Gulf War, a new crisis broke out within Europe itself. The multi-ethnic state of Yugoslavia began falling apart, and fighting broke out in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia- Herzegovina. The region quickly was caught up in a paroxysm of nationalism, hatred, violence and atrocities unseen in Europe since the Second World War.

Transformation Continues as Involvement in the Balkans Grows

Against the background of the deteriorating situation in Former Yugoslavia, SHAPE continued implementing the major changes underway in ACE during the tenure of the tenth SACEUR, U.S. Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili. The ACE Rapid Reaction Corps was established in October 1992, and the ACE Reaction Forces Planning Staff became fully operational at SHAPE. The following year a Reaction Forces Air Staff was established in Germany. Initial planning began for a Combined Joint Task Force Concept to ensure NATO could command and control forces deployed outside the NATO area of operations.

The reorganisation of SHAPE and ACE was implemented in 1993. Europe’s greater voice within the alliance was symbolised by German Gen. Peter Carstens becoming the first European Chief of Staff at SHAPE, a new regional command called Allied Forces Northwest Europe, which comprised the United Kingdom and Norway, was also established the same year.

The early 1990s witnessed increased efforts to provide the recently formed European Union with a military component, which resulted in the establishment of the multi-national Eurocorps. In 1993 Gen. Shalikashvili negotiated with the French and German Chiefs of Defence an agreement about the conditions and missions for which the Eurocorps could be employed with NATO.

SHAPE continued to try to improve relations with the Russian military. In addition, many high-level military cooperation trips to and from Central and East European states were conducted. SHAPE also made a major contribution to the development of what eventually became the Partnership for Peace Programme.

SHAPE, AFSOUTH and ACE Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) became increasingly involved in work associated with the on-going tragedy in Bosnia-Herzegovina and NATO’s growing involvement in the Balkans. In June 1992 SHAPE established a Crisis Response Cell, and elements of NATO’s Northern Army Group Headquarters were used to form the headquarters for United Nations peacekeeping forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

SHAPE and AFSOUTH planned NATO’s first operation in support of the UN in the Balkans, a naval operation to monitor the UN maritime embargo against weapons coming into Former Yugoslavia. In July 1992 NATO ships took up their stations in the Adriatic, and Operation Maritime Monitor began.

Four months later the operation changed to one of enforcement and was called Operation Maritime Guard. Then in June 1993 NATO and the Western European Union combined their ships operating in the Adriatic into a single operation under NATO command, Operation Sharp Guard.

After the United Nations declared a no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina to prevent air attacks from being carried out by the warring factions, NATO began Operation Sky Monitor in October 1992 to monitor the no-fly zone. Then in April 1993 NATO agreed to conduct air operations to enforce the no-fly zone, and Operation Deny Flight began.

SHAPE and AFSOUTH also conducted detailed contingency planning in support of the UN, including plans to establish and protect humanitarian convoys, monitor heavy weapons and conduct various humanitarian airdrop options. In 1993 AFSOUTH and SHAPE completed CINCSOUTH Operation Plan Disciplined Guard which was NATO’s military plan to support implementation of a UN Peace Plan for Bosnia Herzegovina, but the efforts of international mediators to achieve peace remained fruitless.

Shortly before Gen.l Shalikashvili relinquished command to become chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, SHAPE and AFSOUTH completed a plan for NATO Close Air Support to UN forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. NATO was thus prepared to take military action if UN peacekeepers were threatened or to conduct a major peacekeeping operation itself if an agreement could be reached to end the fighting.

One Team, One Mission! NATO Begins Peacekeeping in Bosnia

During the early to mid-1990s SHAPE became more operationally oriented and busier than at any other time in its history. Soon after U.S. Army Gen. George A. Joulwan became SACEUR in 1993, the situation in Bosnia Herzegovina worsened and NATO became increasingly involved in supporting international efforts to stop the fighting.

NATO warships continued operations in the Adriatic Ocean to stop the flow of arms into the crisis area, NATO aircraft patrolled the skies over Bosnia-Herzegovina to enforce the UN no-fly zone and prevent air strikes from taking place, and the SHAPE and AFSOUTH staffs continued to work on contingency plans for possible intervention to assist the withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces in Former Yugoslavia, should this prove necessary, and on plans for possible NATO participation to help implement the various peace plans being proposed by the international community. Preparations were also underway for NATO aircraft to provide close air support to UN peacekeepers threatened by warring parties.

These commitments in support of the UN led to NATO’s first combat actions since its founding in 1949. On February 28, 1994 NATO aircraft shot down four Serb bombers conducting a bombing mission in clear violation of the UN no-fly zone. NATO aircraft also conducted several limited air strikes at the request of the United Nations.

After the Bosnian Serbs overran the Srebrenica safe area, murdered many of its inhabitants and then began to threaten two additional UN-declared safe areas, NATO carried out Operation Deliberate Force.

From late August until mid September 1995, NATO aircraft attacked Bosnian Serb military targets to force them to withdraw heavy weapons from the Sarajevo area. NATO’s forceful action contributed to the Bosnian Serbs’ decision to enter into peace negotiations, and in November 1995 the warring factions signed the Dayton Peace Accords. At the same time NATO agreed to assume responsibility for leading an international peacekeeping force to implement the peace accords in Bosnia Herzegovina.

SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters quickly produced NATO’s military plan to implement the Dayton Accords, and on December 20, 1995 responsibility for peacekeeping in Bosnia-Herzegovina transferred from the UN to the NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR).

The IFOR mission was the largest and most complex military operation in Europe since the Second World War. Nearly 50,000 troops from NATO and 17 Non-NATO countries, including Russia, deployed to the region, and Gen. Joulwan’s unifying slogan for the force was “One Team, One Mission”. The participation of so many non-NATO nations required the development of new co-ordination and command and control arrangements, and one of the most difficult ones to negotiate was with Russia, NATO’s historic Cold War opponent.

After high level diplomacy failed, Gen. Joulwan’s personal negotiations with senior Russian officers proved more successful, and in another historic first for NATO, a Russian general became SACEUR’s deputy for Russian Forces in IFOR, and a Russian delegation joined the IFOR Co-ordination Centre established at SHAPE.

IFOR quickly separated the opposing factions’ armies, secured areas to be transferred from one community to another, and supervised the withdrawal of all forces to zones of separation. It then arranged the movement of large numbers of troops, weapons and equipment to cantonment and storage sites.

In December 1996 IFOR was renamed Stabilisation Force (SFOR) and charged with responsibility for the continued stabilisation of Bosnia Herzegovina. The day before SACEUR Joulwan relinquished command, NATO troops seized their first suspected war criminal and handed him over to the UN for trial.

The SHAPE staff also continued work on less visible but very important tasks. The Partnership for Peace programme was launched in 1994 to improve NATO military co-operation with many neutral countries and former Warsaw Pact members, and a Partnership Co-ordination Centre was established at SHAPE.

SHAPE also continued to work on improving NATO-Russian relations. A long term study began in 1994 to look at ways to reorganise ACE for the second time in the 1990s and to better reflect the evolving European security and defence identity. In 1994 the new Combined Joint Task Force Headquarters Concept required such headquarters to be able to conduct operations for NATO or the Western European Union/European Union.

SHAPE and the ACE Reaction Forces Staff (which became the Combined Joint Planning Staff in April 1997) worked on this politically sensitive task. SHAPE also worked on ways to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to implement a Theatre Missile Defence.

As indications increased that NATO would take on new members in the near future, SHAPE also began preparations and planning for the possible addition of new members to Allied Command Europe.

New Members and Another Crisis in the Balkans

U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark became SACEUR in July 1997, and almost immediately afterward the NATO Summit at Madrid invited three nations - the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - to begin accession talks for membership in the Alliance.

Representatives of the three invited countries then came to SHAPE for initial planning and preparation, and in March 1999 the three nations joined Allied Command Europe with an impressive ceremony held at SHAPE.

Soon afterward NATO found itself involved in its first actual conflict in support of the international community’s efforts to stop the harsh oppression of ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

NATO’s attention had already turned to Kosovo in 1998, after fighting broke out there and a humanitarian crisis began. To support the diplomatic efforts of the international community to end the violence, the Alliance developed a number of possible military options involving various types of air operations.

NATO’s threat to carry out such operations, coupled with the personal diplomacy of Gen. Clark and other senior alliance officials, succeeded in forcing Yugoslav President Milosevic to back down in October 1998 and withdraw large numbers of Serbian security forces from Kosovo. Afterward NATO reconnaissance aircraft monitored the situation while a NATO ground force stood ready to assist an international verification mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) inside Kosovo.

But this respite proved short-lived; fighting again flared up in January 1999 and the Serbs responded with harsh measures and began bringing reinforcements into Kosovo in violation of the October agreements. A renewed threat of NATO air strikes succeeded in bringing the conflict parties to the negotiating table at Rambouillet, France, in February and March 1999, but only the Kosovar Albanians were willing to sign the proposed peace agreement.

Once the talks collapsed, Serb security forces stepped up the intensity of their operations against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.

The OSCE observers withdrew from Kosovo, and President Milosevic rejected final attempts at mediation, so on 23 March 1999 NATO began limited air strikes to force him to accept the international community’s demands. Milosevic responded by greatly expanding his on-going programme of ethnic expulsions in Kosovo, and by the end of May 1999 more than 800,000 Kosovar Albanians had been forced flee into neighbouring states and another 580,000 were estimated to be homeless inside Kosovo.

To deal with this immense humanitarian crisis, NATO acted quickly to build refugee camps and emergency feeding stations while moving large amounts of humanitarian aid to those in need.

The air campaign began with attacks on Yugoslavia’s air defences and then gradually escalated to other military-related targets to increase the pressure on President Milosevic. Precision-guided munitions were used extensively, and all possible efforts were made to avoid civilian casualties. Nevertheless some unfortunate incidents did occur, costing a number of civilian lives.

Gen. Clark’s highest priority was to strike the Serb forces carrying out ethnic expulsions in Kosovo, but this was not easy because these forces quickly ceased exposing themselves to NATO air power.

Despite some differences in outlook among the member nations, NATO maintained a high degree of solidarity throughout the conflict, and it was this solidarity, along with the continuing pressure of the air campaign, that finally convinced President Milosevic to give in to the demands of the international community.

On June 9, 1999 Serb and NATO officers signed an agreement for the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo and the entry of an international NATO-led peacekeeping force (KFOR) into the province. The following day NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana announced the suspension of NATO’s air campaign.

In 78 days of operations, NATO aircraft flew more than 38,000 sorties, of which more than 10,000 were strike sorties, with the remarkable record of no combat fatalities and only two aircraft lost to hostile fire.

KFOR entered Kosovo on June 12, 1999 and immediately set about restoring law and order in the province while large numbers of refugees began returning home. Violence has declined substantially since KFOR’s arrival, but unfortunately ethnic tensions still remain high and KFOR has had to devote considerable effort to protecting the remaining Serbs in the province. Another continuing problem is unrest on Kosovo’s borders. Much remains to be done in Kosovo, but KFOR is providing the necessary stability that enables the international community to assist in rebuilding the province.

New Threats and New Missions in the 21st Century

The Balkans remained an important area of interest under the next SACEUR, General Joseph W. Ralston, who took up his duties in May 2000 as only the second Air Force Officer to serve as SACEUR.  In Kosovo the size of NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) gradually declined as stability was restored, but in the neighbouring former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) ethnic unrest followed by an internationally-brokered cease-fire led to a new NATO Balkans mission in the summer of 2001 as NATO troops arrived to receive the weapons being turned in by the National Liberation Front.  A small NATO force then remained to provide support to international monitors and subsequently to provide advice and assistance to the government in restoring stability.  The NATO mission in FYROM successfully concluded in April 2003, when the European Union took over this responsibility.

The pace and breadth of NATO operations increased sharply in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the United States on 11 September 2001.  The following day NATO invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an armed attack against one or more of the Allies in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.  A concrete example of NATO assistance came with Operation EAGLE ASSIST in October 2001, when NATO Airborne Early Warning aircraft began assisting in monitoring the skies over North America.  Between October 2001 and May 2002, 830 NATO AWACS crew members flew more than 4,300 hours and over 360 operational sorties over the United States.  An additional NATO response to the threat of terrorism began in late October, when a NATO naval operation – Operation ACTIVE ENDEAVOUR – began in the Eastern Mediterranean and subsequently expanded to provide safe passage for Allied shipping in the Straits of Gibraltar and operations throughout the Mediterranean.

During this period the United States along with local Afghan forces succeeded in toppling the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which had previously provided a safe haven for the Al Qaeda terrorist organisation.  Afterward an International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) was established in December 2001 to provide assistance in restoring stability and self-governance in the country, but initially this force was not under NATO command.

In November 2002, shortly before General Ralston stepped down as SACEUR, the leaders of the NATO member nations met at the Prague Summit and decided upon a wide-ranging and ambitious transformation of the Alliance.  In terms of structures, there would in the future be only one command with responsibility for all NATO operations – Allied Command Operations with its headquarters at SHAPE – while the new Allied Command Transformation headquartered at Norfolk, Virginia, in the United States, would be responsible for developing the doctrines and tools that NATO would need in the 21st Century.  The Prague Summit also decide to give the Alliance new capabilities, the most important of which was new NATO Response Force (NRF) capable of providing a rapid response to a looming or actual crisis.  The process of manning and training this new force occurred under the next SACEUR, General James L. Jones, who took up his post in January 2003 as the first Marine Corps officer to serve as SACEUR.  During the next 3¾ years General Jones oversaw the development of the NRF through force generation by the nations and increasingly complex training exercises.  In one of his final acts as SACEUR, General Jones declared in November 2006 that the NRF had attained Full Operational Capability.

During General Jones’s tenure as SACEUR Allied Command Operations became increasingly busy as the number and size of NATO operations increased steadily.  As tensions in the Middle East once again increased prior to the invasion of Iraq by a US-led coalition, NATO conducted Operation Display Deterrence from 20 February to 16 April 2003 to strengthen Turkish defences against a possible threat from Iraq.  In the Balkans KFOR continued its vital peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and successfully withstood a major challenge to stability in March 2004, when widespread ethnic violence was accompanied by attacks on international organisations.  NATO responded quickly to this challenge, bringing in reinforcements to stabilise the situation, and there has been no repeat of such dangerous unrest since then.  Elsewhere in the Balkans NATO turned over another mission to the European Union in December 2004, when the NATO Stabilization Force (SFOR) ceased operations and was replaced by a European Union Force (EUFOR), although NATO did retain a small presence in Bosnia at the NATO Headquarters (Sarajevo).

But NATO operations were gradually becoming more focused outside the Balkans and Europe.  In Afghanistan it was becoming increasingly difficulty to organise and sustain the UN-authorised peacekeeping force (ISAF), so NATO agreed to take over responsibility for this force on 11 August 2003.  Initially the scope of this operation was limited to the area around the capital Kabul, but during General Jones’ tenure as SACEUR NATO gradually expanded its area of responsibility in response to requests from the UN and Afghan authorities, beginning with the northern part of the country in July 2004, then the west in June 2005.  The greatest threats to Afghanistan’s stability, however, lay in the south and east, where Taliban insurgents and drug producers/traffickers were concentrated.  On 31 July 2006 the NATO-led ISAF expanded into southern Afghanistan, resulting in the heaviest ground fighting NATO troops had ever experienced, as the Taliban attempted to resist ISAF’s presence and efforts to reconstruct the area.  Then in October 2006 ISAF took over responsibility for operations in eastern Afghanistan, thus bringing the whole of the country into ISAF’s Area of Operations. 

In addition to commanding ISAF in Afghanistan, NATO has accepted responsibility for a training mission in Iraq, which was authorised in 2004 and continues to assist in the development of the Iraqi security forces with training courses both inside and outside Iraq.  2004 also saw NATO provide considerable assistance to the security of the Olympic Games and Paralympics in Athens, Greece, support that included NATO Airborne Early Warning (NAEW) aircraft.  NAEW aircraft also supported security for the World Cup soccer competition held in Germany in 2006.  NATO has also provided support to an African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan, from June 2005 until December 2007, primarily by organising and coordinating  airlifts.

Humanitarian assistance was yet another important focus of NATO’s operations during General Jones’s tenure.  After Hurricane Katrina caused widespread devastation in the southern United States at the end of August 2005, NATO responded positively to a US request for food, medical and logistics supplies.  A second and much larger humanitarian assistance mission began in October, after Pakistan requested assistance to help it cope with the effects of a powerful earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people and left at least 4,000,000 people homeless, many of them in very remote areas.  NATO quickly provided an air bridge for the concentration of relief supplies and then a highly effective airlift to bring them to Pakistan.  These operations involved a total of 168 aircraft transporting 3,435 tons of assistance.  NATO helicopters transported more than 1,750 tons of relief inside Pakistan and more than 7,650 sick, injured and displaced people.  The NATO Field Hospital treated 4,890 patients, while mobile medical teams treated a further 3,424 patients.  NATO engineers built 110 shelters and 9 schools while also clearing and repairing nearly 60 kilometres of road and removing large amounts of debris.  NATO engineers also provided fresh water and repaired a permanent spring water distribution and storage system.  This humanitarian assistance mission, which was greatly appreciated in Pakistan, ended in late January 2006.

During General Jones’ tenure as SACEUR, the Alliance added seven new members – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia - bringing the total number of countries in the Alliance to 26.  As an interim measure to assist some of these new members in securing their airspace, NATO nations have provided air policing.

On 7 December 2006 General Jones turned over command of Allied Command Operations to General John Craddock, United States Army.  Afghanistan was naturally a key area of interest during General Craddock’s tenure, because ISAF had taken over responsibility for the whole of the country just a few months earlier.  He therefore oversaw the tremendous expansion of ISAF, both in terms of numbers and nations involved.  Despite these increases, the situation in Afghanistan remained a serious challenge for the international community, as attacks by the Taliban and other militants continued to escalate, leading many observers to describe the overall situation as a stalemate.  One important initiative of General Craddock was the decision to attack a major source of insurgent funding by having ISAF interdict drug trafficking and drug laboratories in Afghanistan, a policy that quickly began to show results

The Balkans also continued to be an important area of interest for General Craddock, as Kosovo and NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) both underwent significant changes.  In Kosovo NATO had to deal with the challenges posed by that country’s unilateral declaration of independence and the resulting stand-down of the Kosovo Protection Corps and the stand-up of the Kosovo Security Force.  Another challenge for NATO in Kosovo came with the transfer of administrative responsibilities within the international community from the United Nations to the European Union.  And for KFOR itself, General Craddock advocated and finally achieved political consent for the gradual transformation of the force to a much smaller Deterrent Presence.

In addition to providing the overall strategic direction for NATO’s two major land-based operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan, General Craddock successfully deployed naval forces for operations against piracy in the sea lanes off the Horn of Africa, a continuing area of interest for NATO.  And NATO’s other maritime focus, Operation ACTIVE ENDEAVOUR in the Mediterranean, continued throughout his tenure as SACEUR.

Another key issue faced by General Craddock was the redesign of the NATO Response Force to reflect the actual operational tempo and the difficulty in generating sufficient forces, thus attempting to ensure the long-term viability of the NRF.  Transformation was also a continuing subject during recent years, as NATO established two new transformational institutions under Allied Command Operations, the Intelligence Fusion Centre and the NATO Special Operations Coordination Centre.  And on the international stage, General Craddock had to deal with tremendous fluctuations in the nature of NATO-Russia relations in the wake of the Georgia-Russia conflict of August 2008, a situation which began to return to normalcy just before General Craddock’s departure with the decision to resume NATO-Russia Council meetings.

During General Craddock’s tenure as SACEUR two more nations – Albania and Croatia – joined the Alliance in April 2009, bringing the total number of NATO members to 28.  Once again, air policing is being provided by other NATO members until the new members develop their own capabilities.

On 2 July 2009 General Craddock was succeeded as SACEUR by Admiral James G. Stavridis, US Navy, in a ceremony marking a historic first in NATO’s history – the first admiral to serve as SACEUR.

 

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