New collections available on NATO Archives Online

  • 16 Jan. 2015 -
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  • Last updated: 20 Jan. 2015 16:17

The NATO Archives is excited to announce a second wave of declassified and publicly disclosed NATO documents for its popular web-based research tool NATO Archives Online (http://archives.nato.int). Over 23000 new documents have been uploaded to NATO Archives Online covering three major areas previously unavailable on the web.

The Records of the International Military Staff (1949-1959): 19100 documents from NATO’s earliest meetings, including the Defence Committee, the Military Committee and the Standing Group are now available.  Strategic Planning, Command Organization and the establishment of the NATO liaison between Washington and Paris are covered in these series.

Press Releases (1961-present): 3200 historical Press Releases from the early 60s up to today, this collection can be searched for NATO’s official positions related to different historical events.  Since the mid-2000s, paper copies of Press Releases were discontinued though all modern Press Releases can still be found on the main NATO webpage (http://www.nato.int)

Publications (1952-2001): 372 historical publications from NATO’s founding until the early 2000s are organized into Reference and Non-Periodical series.  The reference publications were detailed works explaining every aspect of NATO: its structure, history, purpose, and daily functioning.  The non-periodicals varied in their subjects, with works focusing on different audiences or on specific topics.  Their goal was to inform the wider public, from children to civil leaders, about NATO’s purpose and its many facets.

The documents contained in these three collections, prepared with the help of the International Military Staff and the Public Diplomacy Division, have all been individually scanned and digitized from their original paper sources into a PDF/A format that enables full-text searches.  Additionally, 170 new archival descriptions have been written in support of these collections to help researchers and students navigate the site and better understand the context of the documents.

The NATO Archives is committed to facilitating the accessibility of NATO’s documentary heritage. The collections that make up this second wave have more than doubled the number of publicly disclosed documents available for consultation on NATO Archives Online.  As always, every document presented on NATO Archives Online can be downloaded free of charge.

The NATO Archives will continue to process and upload additional collections and documents over the coming years.  Be on the lookout for our next upload, which will include records of Supreme Headquarters Allied Command Europe (SHAPE)! Don’t forget that hundreds of thousands more NATO documents are already publicly disclosed and available to consult in our physical Reading Room (http://www.nato.int/archives).