ABSTRACT
After the collapse of the Soviet Union there was no longer a major direct threat to NATO territory. As a result, NATO was increasingly focused on crisis management and so-called non-Article V threats. These new threats – or ‘risks’ – were officially recognized in the new Strategic Concept adopted at the Washington Summit in April 1999.1 The post-Cold War strategic thinking of NATO countries has evolved from the pre-eminence of territorial defence to the predominance of security interests. Concomitantly, the dominant concern is the management of crises and conflicts that are deemed to put at stake relevant security interests within the Euro-Atlantic area.2 The new Strategic Concept reflects this changing balance between collective defence and crisis response. It notes that that Alliance forces must be able to carry out a full range of missions. At the same time, these forces must also be able to contribute to conflict prevention and non-Article V crisis response operations (paragraph 14 of the 1999 NATO Strategic Concept).
