NATO Expeditionary Operations

Download or read book NATO Expeditionary Operations written by Jeffrey Simon and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since deployments into the Balkans in the mid-1990s the involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in military operations beyond the territories of its members has posed both challenges and opportunities for the increasingly numerous post-Cold War Alliance partners, a number of whom have since acceded to full membership. Broadly what kinds of lessons have new NATO members and partners drawn from these expeditionary operations? And how have these experiences influenced ongoing efforts aimed at transforming their defense postures? NATO operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina concluded only at the end of 2004. While building their forces either from Warsaw Pact legacy capabilities or from scratch NATO aspirants and partners learned that conscript-based forces that had utility for territorial defense had serious limitations for expeditionary operations. These Central and East European governments recognized that they needed rapidly deployable forces with independent logistics and a sufficient cadre of well-trained English- speaking military personnel for effective involvement in peacekeeping and related operations. The Bosnia experience thus became the catalyst for more realistic defense reform among then-NATO aspirants.