Military Matters [01]

i s s u e military matters [01] The beginnings of NATO’s military structure: birth of the Alliance to the fall of the Berlin Wall military matters [01] The beginnings of NATO’s military structure: birth of the Alliance to the fall of the Berlin Wall The beginnings of NATO’s military structure: birth of the Alliance to the fall of the Berlin Wall (Front Cover Photo) More than fi ve decades since NATO’s Europe/Western Mediterranean, United Two Belgian workmen founding, it is hard to imagine that the States/Canada, and the North Atlantic mark out the area on the Organisation did not always have the Ocean) to examine issues of military site of the “new” NATO complex military and political structures import in each respective area. Headquarters in Brussels, that have long been key features of its in March 1967. It is home decision-making process. When the The fi rst meeting of the Military Committee to the NATO Secretary Alliance was created by the Washington was held on 6 October 1949, a day after General and support Treaty of 4 April 1949, it possessed very its creation, in Washington DC. staff; national military little in the way of political structures It was composed of the chiefs of defence delegations from NATO and virtually no military establishments. from 11 of the 12 founder countries and Partner countries; (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the International Military The fi rst organisational structures were Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Staff; and the Military created by the Washington Treaty itself. Portugal, the United Kingdom and the Committee, which shapes Article 9 established a Council that became United States), and civilian representation military direction from known as the North Atlantic Council (NAC), from Iceland, which did not (and still does political guidance and the top political decision-making body not) have military forces. The Defence provides consensus-based within the Alliance. Initially composed of Committee no longer exists as such, and military advice to NATO’s member country foreign ministers, it was thus the Military Committee is the oldest civilian authorities. The authorised to “set up such subsidiary regularly convened body in NATO after the other Belgian-based NATO bodies as may be necessary.” The Council North Atlantic Council. headquarters is near was specifi cally instructed to “establish Mons, less than an hour immediately a defence committee which The Alliance’s initial organisational southwest of Brussels, shall recommend measures for the imple- structure was very loose. Bodies meeting where the Alliance’s mentation of Articles 3 [maintain and at the ministerial level were only obliged military operations are develop individual and collective capacity to convene once a year, although they planned and coordinated. to resist armed attack] and 5 [an armed could have met more frequently. During attack against one or more of them shall be the early years when the Alliance structure considered an attack against them all].” was being put into place, the Council actually met four times between September The Defence Committee, composed of 1949 and May 1950. However, it soon defence ministers or their representa- became clear that a mechanism was tives, came into existence at the fi rst needed for decision-making during the NAC meeting of 17 September 1949. The periods between ministerial-level Council Council also directed the new Defence meetings. It was not until a major NATO Committee to establish subordinate bodies reorganisation was approved at the Lisbon for defence matters: a Military Committee Conference of 1952 that a true, full-time composed of the chiefs of defence of permanent session of the NAC came into member nations; the Standing Group, existence. In parallel, a Secretary General a three-nation executive body for the was appointed to head a new international Military Committee with representatives staff for NATO and chair the permanent from France, the United Kingdom and the session of the Council. United States; and fi ve committees known as Regional Planning Groups (Northern Europe, Western Europe, Southern 2 military matters [01] The beginnings of NATO’s military structure: birth of the Alliance to the fall of the Berlin Wall NATO foreign ministers sign the accession agreement in Paris, admitting the Federal Republic of Germany as the Alliance’s 15th member, on 23 October 1954. The Organisation has admitted new members five times since the original 12 nations formed NATO in 1949. On the military side of the Alliance, the Despite these changes, the Standing Military Committee faced the same situa- Group remained an unwieldy instrument, tion as the Council: because it existed at a in which national viewpoints tended to very senior level, it did not meet very fre- outweigh international perspectives. Faced quently. Nonetheless, it had a permanent with the pending relocation of NATO’s executive body – the Standing Group – political and military headquarters from to carry out its decisions, direct military France, the Supreme Allied Commander planning, and provide staff support. Europe, General Lyman Lemnitzer, in May 1966 suggested a major reorganisa- The limitation of the Standing Group’s tion: one Supreme Allied Commander membership to France, the United Kingdom NATO, to replace the three positions of and the United States was a real source SACEUR, the Supreme Allied Commander of irritation to the other nine NATO mem- Atlantic, and the Chairman of the Military bers. Eventually, pressure exerted by the Committee. non-members for more infl uence during the periods when the Military Committee was not in session led to the creation of The Standing Group, the Military Representatives Committee, initially composed of with national liaison offi cers as “Accredited officers from the United Military Representatives.” Nevertheless, the States, the United Standing Group, with its permanent offi ce, Kingdom and France, full-time operations and infl uence over was the forerunner to the agenda-setting, remained the predominant International Military Staff. body giving direction to planning within The latter was created in the Military Committee during the 1950s. 1967 to support the work This situation also contributed to making exclusively in a corporate, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe or international capacity, of (SACEUR) at that time the pre-eminent the Military Committee and source of military advice to the Secretary its chairman. General and the NAC. In 1957, each non- member of the Standing Group was invited to send a planning offi cer and in 1963, all NATO members were fully represented. From then on, the Standing Group became known as the International Planning Staff. 3 military matters [01] The beginnings of NATO’s military structure: birth of the Alliance to the fall of the Berlin Wall Realising that such a major change would THE ISSUE OF “COMMAND” be very diffi cult to implement at a time when NATO was attempting to deal with In the early 1950s, in addition to the the French withdrawal from the integrated disputes about who would give direction military structure, General Lemnitzer also to Alliance military planning, were the presented an alternative proposal to the questions of who would actually do the Secretary General: the establishment of planning, and then execute the plans in a “completely integrated, international time of war. The military structure initially military staff, headed by a director of three- developed made no provisions for war- star rank, to serve as the executive agency time command and control. It had no fi xed for the Military Committee.” On 15 June military headquarters or commanders and 1966 the North Atlantic Council adopted relied instead upon committees with rep- this proposal, and on 10 February 1967, resentatives from the member states. As a the International Military Staff was born. consequence, the only military bodies sub- The Standing Group stood down and in ordinate to the Military Committee and the October that same year the International Standing Group during the Alliance’s early Military Staff moved permanently from years were the fi ve Regional Planning Washington DC to NATO Headquarters in Group committees, none of which was Brussels, where it works still, on behalf of capable of providing command and control the Military Committee. to NATO forces. Initially, the chairmanship of the Military Europe did have one combined military Committee was held on a one-year rota- headquarters in 1950, but this belonged tional basis by each of the members to NATO’s predecessor, the Western according to the alphabetical order of Union Defence Organisation, created by nations in English, beginning with the the Brussels Treaty of 17 March 1948 and United States. As such, in 1949-50, signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, American General Omar Bradley became the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. the fi rst chairman. This approach held fi rm Although it had a military headquarters until 1964, when it became clear that the at Fontainebleau, France, the organisa- range, scope and complexity of issues and tion lacked a true command structure. activities called for a full-time Chairman to Additionally, its senior military offi cer, assist and guide the work of the Committee. Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of The Chairman is now elected by a simple Alamein, was the chairman of a commit- majority vote by all NATO chiefs of defence, tee – the Western Union’s Commanders- and normally serves a three-year term, in-Chief Committee – and not a supreme though this can be for a shorter period, or commander. Neither Montgomery nor the extended one year. He also acts exclusively three subordinate heads of the land, sea, in an international capacity. or air forces had any operational authority in peacetime, and “Monty” did not even The Military Committee, composed of all have real authority over the commanders, NATO’s chiefs of defence, is the highest as was demonstrated by his frequent dis- military authority in the Alliance and its agreements with the head of the ground chairman the senior offi cer in NATO.

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