10 Mar. 2005

Remembering Brosio: NATO Secretary General and Cold War consensus-builder Opinion 10/03/2005 - NATO Review Manlio Brosio: Cold War consensus-builder (PDF/108kb) 14/03/2005 - NATO Rivista Manlio Brosio: creatore di consenso durante la Guerra Fredda (PDF/151kb) On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his death on 14 March 1980, a special NATO Review article looks back on the life of Manlio Brosio of Italy, NATO’s fourth Secretary General. The article examines the challenges Brosio faced during the seven years between 1964 and 1971 that he served as Secretary General, his leadership style and the attributes that enabled him to provide what the then US NATO Ambassador Harlan Cleveland called the “political ingredient” for finding consensus on the most difficult issues. “The Brosio era was an especially difficult period for inter-Allied unity during which NATO changed its strategic thinking from a doctrine of 'massive retaliation' to one of ‘flexible response’,” writes Ryan C. Hendrickson, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, the author of the article. Hendrickson is currently working on a book on NATO’s Secretaries General. A formal commemoration ceremony will be held at NATO Headquarters on 13 April, in conjunction with the NATO Secretary General’s conference on “Transforming NATO – A Political and Military Challenge”. NATO Review is published under the authority of the Secretary General and intended to contribute to a constructive discussion of Atlantic issues. As such, articles do not necessarily represent official opinion of member governments or NATO.