The new NATO Strategic Doctrine: The positives and negatives for Greece

Main Points of NATO’s New Strategic Concept (Strategic Doctrine).

1. The Alliance’s New Strategic Concept (Strategic Concept), for the next decade, approved, at the Madrid Summit, by the Heads of State and Government of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) member states is the most important guiding document ( Guiding Document) of NATO, after the Statute of the Charter, which is its founding Agreement.

Based on the New Strategic Concept, instructions will then be issued that will define the political and military means (capabilities), with which its implementation will be supported.

2. Main and most important points of the new strategic concept:

a. NATO remains a Regional Organisation, but with great interest in cooperation in North Africa, the Sahel and the Indo-Pacific, as developments there can have a direct impact on Euro-Atlantic Security and require the strengthening of inter-regional cooperation with Australia, the Japan, South Korea and India.

b. He points out that “our vision is clear and we want to live in a world where national sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights and international law are respected and that each country can choose its own path without aggression, coercion and undermining”.

c. Collective security (deterrence and defense), Crisis Prevention and Management and Cooperative Security remain NATO’s core missions in the new Strategic Concept.

d. Countering terrorism and collective “resilience” are characterized as critical factors for the implementation of the above basic missions.

e. Special emphasis is placed on maintaining the “nuclear Alliance” purely for reasons of deterrence.

f. It characterizes challenges and threats, to the democratic processes and democratic institutions of the countries, new hybrid threats and challenges, such as cyber-attacks, disinformation campaigns, instrumentalization by states and non-states, migration and energy supply.

g. Special mention is made of emerging “disruptive” technologies, which will preoccupy the Alliance in the next decade, as they change the context in the field of security and the Alliance’s main priority is the vanguard of cutting-edge technologies, innovation in NATO activities and increasing cooperation between Allies in military technology and innovation, to enhance interoperability.

h. Special emphasis is placed on the strategic relationship and cooperation between NATO and the EU, which is characterized as a unique and necessary partner, to further strengthen cooperation in the fields of resilience, energy security, climate change and hybrid threats, with the full involvement of non-EU members in the defense efforts of the Union.

i. It characterizes the Russian Federation as the most important and immediate threat to the security of the Allies and stability in the Euro-Atlantic Region, while simultaneously maintaining open channels of communication, to reduce the risks of escalation of the crisis, by not abrogating the NATO-Russia Founding Act.

j. Towards China, the strategy of a dual approach is chosen, out of a need for a constructive relationship, in the context of the effort made to distance it from Russia and avoid greater rivalry, despite the fact that it is characterized as a challenge to interests, security and to the Alliance’s values, following the strategic relationship it signed with Russia on 4 Feb 22.

ya. It also refers to the safety of navigation and the freedom of the seas and the need for peaceful conduct.