Reforming NATO's Command and Operational Control Structures: Progress and Problems

Abstract

Abstract : One element of NATO's efforts to reform its military structures has been little noticed efforts to reorganize the Alliance's extensive command and operational control structures. It is essential for the Alliance to effect these difficult reforms if it is to rationalize its integrated command structure to face the exigencies of diminished force structures and new operational challenges. However, as can be expected, the reorganization of command structures is first and foremost a political, as opposed to military, act. Therefore, reform has been slow to date. The authors, have produced this study of how the reorganization process has progressed thus far. Streamlining operational control structures in AFCENT has gone relatively smoothly, while AFNORTH continues to defy easy resolution. They also explain where long-standing difficulties are likely to impede needed reform, e.g., AFSOUTH, at a time when risks to the Alliance have shifted southward. Moreover, a description of the operational control arrangements for Rapid Reactions Corps. Given the intensely political nature of command at the highest level, the authors demonstrate the need to consider the political aspects of wartime operational control arrangements in attempting to appreciate the difficulty of this ongoing streamline process. NATO; military structures; command and control; command structures.