The Secretary General

NATO Review

- Black Sea security challenges 17 May. 2018 What is happening in and around the Black Sea and how does it affect NATO?
- The Black Sea region: a critical intersection 17 May. 2018 The Black Sea region is of crucial significance for Europe, being a major crossroads and critical intersection of east-west and south-north corridors. The region is home to three NATO members (Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey) and several NATO partner countries, so any instability or hostility in the area directly impacts the Alliance. Pavel Anastasov – a political scientist, who previously served in the Bulgarian government and currently works for NATO – outlines the main security challenges in the region and NATO’s response to them.
- Will the Alliance discover navies again? 04 Apr. 2018 “There is no one area in which Russia is outperforming NATO but their approach in combining technology, ways of fighting, platforms, weapons, sensors alongside an aggressive political will to act makes them challenging adversaries.” – Prof. Peter Roberts of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.
- Resilience: Planning for Sweden’s ''Total Defence'' 04 Apr. 2018 In response to the deteriorating security situation, Sweden is taking steps not only to enhance its warfighting capability but also to increase the resilience of society.
- Diplomacy by other means? NATO’s science sixty years on… 26 Mar. 2018 The public release of archived documents has shed new light on the wider legacy of the Alliance’s investment in science. Crucially, it reveals the importance of this sponsorship, which started exactly sixty years ago, for the advancement of science as much as for the Allies’ relations at the height of the Cold War.
- Projecting Stability 13 Mar. 2018 If NATO’s neighbours are more stable, NATO is more secure.
- Projecting Stability: an agenda for action 13 Mar. 2018 “NATO’s neighbours are more stable, NATO is more secure.” This statement is at the heart of NATO’s work on Projecting Stability.
- Adapting NATO to an unpredictable and fast-changing world 19 Feb. 2018 The GLOBSEC NATO Adaptation Initiative offers food for thought on how the Alliance needs to further adapt to meet the challenges of a century in which the very idea of security and defence will be radically changed.
- Sweden and NATO – 23 years down the road 11 Jan. 2018 In the face of current security challenges, Sweden is increasing defence spending, strengthening its capabilities, and deepening its cooperation with NATO and partner countries.
- Beauty and the Beasts: Why terrorists target history 20 Dec. 2017 Taking in interviews ranging from the head of UNESCO through to an Afghan smuggler, this documentary looks at the trail of destruction left by terrorist groups in our cultural heritage. It investigates how they both ban it but yet use it to fund their activities.
- Zapad 2017 and Euro-Atlantic security 14 Dec. 2017 The increasing size and complexity of Russia’s annual strategic and snap exercises, in particular the Western-oriented ZAPAD series, underscores the need for Allies to ensure full and timely implementation of the strengthened deterrence and defence measures.
- New security challenge: The growth of illicit trade and corruption 08 Dec. 2017 Enabled by corruption, illicit trade poses manifold challenges to security across the world. Louise Shelley of George Mason University explains why global responses are needed urgently.
- Protecting civilians with disabilities in conflicts 01 Dec. 2017 Complex terrorist attacks are on the rise. We need to train commanders to respond effectively.
- Preparing commanders to counter marauding terrorist attacks 22 Nov. 2017 Complex terrorist attacks are on the rise. We need to train commanders to respond effectively.
- Combating Conflict-Related Sexual Violence 26 Oct. 2017 To mark the 17th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, two experts look at how far we have come in the fight to eradicate sexual violence in conflict and at how NATO operations can be supported to enhance these efforts.
- Adapting NATO intelligence in support of ''One NATO'' 08 Sep. 2017 NATO stood up its new Joint Intelligence and Security Division earlier this year, headed up by Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven. He explains why this is the most significant reform in the history of Allied intelligence.
- Autonomous military drones: no longer science fiction 28 Jul. 2017 The possibility of life-or-death decisions someday being taken by machines not under the direct control of humans needs to be taken seriously. Three Norwegian experts take a look at advances in this technology, and at the legal and ethical issues raised.
- Tackling the surge of returning foreign fighters 14 Jul. 2017 Reflecting public threat perceptions, ‘hard approaches’ towards foreign fighter returnees, emphasising prosecution and long prison sentences, remain popular. But Alastair Reed and Johanna Pohl of the International Center for Counter Terrorism in The Hague argue that such approaches fail to address the entirety of the problem and need to be augmented by ‘soft’ approaches that focus on prevention and rehabilitation.
- The NATO-Ukraine Distinctive Partnership turns twenty: lessons to take forward 04 Jul. 2017 James Greene, former head of the NATO Liaison Office in Ukraine, looks back across two decades of the NATO-Ukraine partnership and identifies four major lessons that are particularly relevant today, as Ukraine defends itself against Russia’s destabilising activities.
- Hybrid influence – lessons from Finland 28 Jun. 2017 Finland has a long history of being a small state living next to a huge and increasingly assertive neighbour, Russia. Two Finnish experts share some of the lessons Finland has learned in recent years.
- NATO-Russia relations 13 Jun. 2017 Radoslava Stefanova, Head of NATO’s Russia and Ukraine Relations Section, looks back with regret to the honeymoon days of NATO-Russia relations and asks what options remain in the aftermath of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and continued aggression on Ukraine.
- A personal take on NATO-Russia relations 13 Jun. 2017 Fifteen years after the NATO-Russia Council was established, Radoslava Stefanova, Head of NATO’s Russia and Ukraine Relations Section, looks back in disappointment at how the high hopes for the NATO-Russia partnership have been dashed.
- The Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty: reasons for skepticism 19 May. 2017 Current efforts to ban nuclear weapons will be ineffective and risk undermining the non-proliferation regime, which could have dangerous consequences – Michael Rühle of NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division explains.
- Russian intelligence is at (political) war 12 May. 2017 It would be a mistake to see the Russian security and intelligence services as analogues of those of the West. Mark Galeotti, a senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague stresses that ''in terms of their missions, interactions and mindsets, they are on a wartime footing.''
- Sharing the burden of keeping Europe whole, free and at peace 05 May. 2017 Measuring fair burden-sharing is more complicated than it seems,” says Alexander Mattelaer of the Egmont Institute. He takes a closer look at this issue, which is a hot topic of debate in the run up to the meeting of Allied leaders on 25 May in Brussels.

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NATO IN FOCUS

The principle of collective defence is at the very heart of NATO’s founding treaty. It remains a unique and enduring principle that binds its members together, committing them to protect each other and setting a spirit of solidarity within the Alliance.

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Collective defence - Article 5

NATO constantly reviews and transforms its policies, capabilities and structures to ensure that it can continue to address current and future challenges to the freedom and security of its members. Presently, Allied forces are required to carry out a wide range of missions across several continents; the Alliance needs to ensure that its armed forces remain modern, deployable, and capable of sustained operations.

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NATO’s capabilities

Partnerships: building security through cooperation

Many of the challenges NATO faces require cooperation with other stakeholders in the international community. Over the past 25 years, the Alliance has developed a network of regional partnership frameworks with 41 partner countries from the Euro-Atlantic area, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region, as well as individual relationships with other partners across the globe. NATO pursues dialogue and practical cooperation with these nations on a wide range of political and security-related issues. NATO’s partnerships are beneficial to all involved and contribute to improved security for the broader international community.

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Partnerships: building security through cooperation

Operations and missions: past and present

NATO is an active and leading contributor to peace and security on the international stage. It promotes democratic values and is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. However, if diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military capacity needed to undertake crisis-management operations, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations.

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Operations and missions: past and present

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Statement by the NATO Secretary General on MH17 investigation

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