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2022-07-01

Deterrence, Defence Core Elements of NATO Strategy

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a political and military alliance, whose principal task is to ensure the protection of its citizens and to promote security and stability in the North Atlantic area.

Today, the Alliance is faced with a security environment that is more diverse, complex, fast-moving and uncertain than in the past.

NATO continues to face distinct threats from state and non-state actors; from military forces and from terrorist, cyber and hybrid attacks.

The Alliance must be able to address the full spectrum of current and future challenges and threats from any direction.

To address such challenges, the Alliance continues to strengthen its deterrence and defence posture.

On March 24, at an extraordinary summit about Russia’s war on Ukraine, NATO leaders agreed to deploy four battalions in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, in addition to the four already present in the Baltic States and Poland.

They decided to take measures to ensure the security and defence of all Allies across all domains, reinforcing the Alliance’s longer-term deterrence and defence posture.

Two military concepts set the direction for NATO’s ongoing evolution: the Concept for Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area focuses on force employment to deter and defend today, while the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept offers a vision to guide the Alliance’s long-term warfare development to remain militarily strong.

At the Brussels Summit in 2021, NATO leaders approved the “NATO 2030” initiative, which has led to the introduction of additional measures to ensure NATO remains strong militarily, becomes even stronger politically and adopts a more global approach to security.

European Allies and Canada have made considerable progress in increasing defence spending and investing in major equipment, taking steps towards fairer burden-sharing within NATO: 2021 was their seventh consecutive year of increased defence spending, with a cumulative extra contribution of US$ 190 billion since 2014.

Complex Security Environment

NATO faces the most complex security environment since the end of the Cold War. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is jeopardising European security, and terrorism continues to represent a global security challenge and a threat to stability. At the same time, the rise of China is shifting the global balance of power, with implications for the Alliance’s security, values and way of life. Growing global uncertainty, more sophisticated and disruptive cyber and hybrid threats, and exponential technological change are having a substantial impact on the Alliance.

To the south, the security situation in the Middle East and Africa has deteriorated due to a combination of factors that are causing loss of life, fuelling migration flows and inspiring terrorist attacks in Allied countries and elsewhere.

Collective defence is at the heart of the Alliance, as set out in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. NATO’s greatest responsibility is to protect and defend Allied territory and populations against attack in a world where peace and security cannot be taken for granted.

Deterrence is a core component of NATO’s overall strategy: preventing conflict and war, protecting Allies, maintaining freedom of decision and action, and upholding the principles and values it stands for – individual liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Free societies and the rules-based international order need to be backed by credible transatlantic defence.

NATO’s capacity to deter and defend is supported by an appropriate mix of nuclear, conventional, and missile defence capabilities, which complement each other, and is underpinned by an array of civil and military resources to support these capabilities and the posture more broadly.

Importance of Resilience

Enhancing resilience by strengthening the capacity of societies to absorb the full range of threats and hazards is an integral part of NATO’s deterrence and defence posture. At its peak, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of resilience, including the ability to deal with mass casualties or ensuring the continuity of civil supply chains.

At the same time, resilience impacts NATO’s ability to conduct its missions and maintain the mobility of its troops and equipment. It requires close civil-military cooperation, and the effort of the whole of government and society to assure overall resilience.

Since 2014, NATO has been providing guidelines to assist national authorities in improving their resilience across seven baseline requirements by reducing potential vulnerabilities.

NATO responded to the COVID-19 crisis by protecting military personnel, facilitating the airlift of critical medical supplies, and harnessing resources to deliver innovative responses.

Allied armed forces supported civilian efforts with logistics and planning, field hospitals and hospital ships, transport for patients, repatriation of citizens abroad, disinfection of public areas, and at border crossings.

Readiness Action Plan

The Readiness Action Plan (RAP), launched at the Wales Summit in 2014, was a major driver for change in the Alliance’s deterrence and defence posture. The RAP was initiated to ensure the Alliance is ready to respond swiftly and firmly to new security challenges from the east and from the south.

Building on the RAP, NATO Heads of State and Government approved a strengthened deterrence and defence posture at the Warsaw Summit in July 2016. It is providing the Alliance with a broad range of options to be able to respond to any threats from wherever they arise to protect Alliance territory, populations, airspace and sea lines of communication.

A number of measures have been undertaken to adapt the Alliance to the challenges emanating from the south, including capacity-building, dedicated exercises and advance planning, as well as setting up the Regional Hub for the South in Naples, Italy, which contributes to NATO’s situational awareness.

Exercises remain an integral part of NATO’s deterrence and defence since military training is an essential requirement to maintain the Alliance’s readiness levels and interoperability.

NATO’s adaptation efforts continue in all domains and in areas such as civil preparedness and countering hybrid threats, including in cooperation with the European Union (EU).

Relations with the EU include increased cooperation, as well as complementary and interoperable capability development to avoid duplication and contribute to transatlantic burden-sharing.

At the 2018 Brussels Summit, NATO Leaders reiterated their resolve to bolster the Alliance’s readiness, responsiveness and reinforcement to respond to threats from any direction in a 360-degree approach.

A NATO Readiness Initiative was launched to enhance the Alliance’s rapid-response capability, either for reinforcement of Allies in support of deterrence or collective defence, including for high-intensity warfighting, or for rapid military crisis intervention, if required.

NATO continues to address the security implications of Russia’s growing arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles. The Alliance is responding by strengthening its advanced conventional capabilities, investing in new platforms – including fifth-generation fighter aircraft – and adapting its exercises, intelligence, and air and missile defence posture. It is doing so while ensuring its nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective.

The group has recognised cyberspace as a domain of operations in which it must defend itself as effectively as it does in the air, on land and at sea. The creation of a new Cyberspace Operations Centre in Belgium and the formation of counter-hybrid support teams to assist Allies in need also bolster the Alliance’s deterrence efforts.

At the December 2019 Leaders’ Meeting in London, NATO declared space as a fifth operational domain.

In October 2020, defence ministers decided to establish a NATO Space Centre in Ramstein, Germany. This Centre will serve as a focal point for sharing information, coordinating Allies’ efforts and supporting NATO’s operations and missions.

Technological Edge

Keeping its technological edge has always been an essential enabler of NATO’s ability to deter and defend against potential adversaries. Innovations in artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons systems, big data and biotech are changing warfare. NATO recently agreed an implementation strategy for emerging and disruptive technologies. The Alliance will play an important role as a forum for cooperation on various security-related aspects of these emerging technologies.

Defence Investment Pledge

The Defence Investment Pledge, adopted by NATO Leaders in 2014, called for all Allies to stop cuts to defence budgets and meet the NATO-agreed guideline of spending at least 2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence within a decade. Allies also agreed to move towards spending at least 20 per cent of annual defence expenditure on major new equipment, including related research and development.

Finally, the Pledge committed Allies to ensuring that their land, air and maritime forces meet NATO-agreed guidelines for deployability, sustainability and other agreed metrics, and that their armed forces can operate together effectively, including through the implementation of NATO standards and doctrines.

Since 2014, Allies have made considerable progress in increasing defence spending and investing in major equipment, taking steps towards fairer burden-sharing. 2021 was the seventh consecutive year of increased defence spending by European Allies and Canada, which contributed a cumulative extra of US$ 190 billion since 2014. The principle of collective defence is at the very heart of NATO’s founding treaty. Article 5 provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally attacked.

With the invocation of Article 5, Allies can provide any form of assistance they deem necessary to respond to a situation. This is an individual obligation on each Ally and each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary in the particular circumstances.

This assistance is taken forward in concert with other Allies. It is not necessarily military and depends on the material resources of each country. It is left to the judgment of each individual member country to determine how it will contribute.

Invocation of Article 5

The United States was the object of brutal terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. The Alliance’s 1999 Strategic Concept had already identified terrorism as one of the risks affecting NATO’s security. The Alliance’s response to 9/11, however, saw NATO engage actively in the fight against terrorism, launch its first operations outside the Euro-Atlantic area and begin a far-reaching transformation of its capabilities. It led NATO to invoke Article 5 of the Washington Treaty for the very first time in its history.

On the evening of 12 September 2001, less than 24 hours after the attacks, the Allies invoked the principle of Article 5. Then NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations of the Alliance’s decision.

The North Atlantic Council – NATO’s principal political decision-making body – agreed that if it determined that the attack was directed from abroad against the United States, it would be regarded as an action covered by Article 5. On 2 October, once the Council had been briefed on the results of investigations into the 9/11 attacks, it determined that they were regarded as an action covered by Article 5.

By invoking Article 5, NATO members showed their solidarity toward the United States and condemned, in the strongest possible way, the terrorist attacks against the United States.

NATO has tripled the size of the NATO Response Force (NRF), a highly ready and technologically advanced multinational force; established a 5,000-strong Spearhead Force within the NRF; and deployed multinational battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Standing Forces on Duty

The group has a number of standing forces on active duty that contribute to the collective defence efforts on a permanent basis. These include NATO’s standing maritime forces, which are ready to act when called upon.

The organisation has an integrated air defence system to protect against air attacks, which comprises the Alliance’s ballistic missile defence system.

NATO conducts several air policing missions, which are collective peacetime missions that enable NATO to detect, track and identify all violations and infringements of its airspace and to take appropriate action.

Allied fighter jets patrol the airspace of Allies who do not have fighter jets of their own. They run on a 24/7 basis, 365 days a year.

Reference Text/Photo: ww.nato.int, www.army.mil, www.af.mil