Secretary General's foreword

NATO'scredibility rests on its cohesion and military competence - its provenability to foster cooperation between its member nations and to engagethem in demanding military operations in regions of vital strategicimportance. In the face of a whole new set of risks and threats to ourcommon security, we must strengthen our political dialogue to ensurecontinued Allied cohesion. In short, we must transform.

Alot of public attention has focused on NATO's contributions to peaceand stability in the Balkans, the Mediterranean Sea, Afghanistan andrecently Iraq. There has been considerable interest also in thewidening of NATO's membership and the deepening of its partnershiprelations. But there is more to NATO's transformation. We have adaptedour strategy and concepts, our military command and force structures,and our internal organisation and procedures. Alliance CommandTransformation is a key driver in the military transformation process.And with the NATO Response Force and our Chemical, Biological,Radiological and Nuclear Defence Battalion, we now have force packagesin place that are specifically geared to some of the most pressingrequirements. Each of our 26 member nations has been taking a hard lookat its own defence programmes and structures, to make sure that theyare relevant to today's demands. A lot has already been achieved. ButNATO's transformation is still very much a work in progress. Inaddition, we must ensure that NATO Headquarters structure is geared tosupport this process.

The three main strands of this work are clear. First, we need tofurther enhance the usability, availability and sustainability of ourforces - to make sure that a much larger proportion of our militariesis readily available for operations away from Alliance territory.Second, we must continue to better align our political and operationaldecisions - by further improving our defence-planning andforce-generation processes, and by creating greater clarity onresourcing through a better balance between national and commonfunding. Finally, but fundamentally, we need enhanced political debateto muster and sustain the transatlantic consensus that has been, andwill remain, crucial to the success of any Alliance undertaking. I amencouraged by our February Summit, where NATO leaders committed tostrengthen the Alliance as a forum for strategic and politicalconsultations and coordination.

In order to succeed, the Alliance's transformation will requirecontinued careful attention to the efficiency of the NATO Headquartersstructure, and strong engagement by the governments and parliaments ofour member nations. I want to do my utmost to make sure that NATO'stransformation continues. It is critical to the Alliance's ability toprovide security well into the future.