A Collective Defense Alliance is a military alliance that unites countries with a mutual promise to defend each other in the face of attack. It enables nations to pool resources and capabilities, thereby creating a more robust defense posture against threats, strengthens political ties, reduces the risk of conflict and supports regional stability.
NATO Allies are united in their determination to confront the asymmetric threat of terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, as well as Russia’s malign behaviour. They also remain committed to a rules-based international order, including effective arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation.
Today, Allies are facing the most serious challenges to the Alliance’s security in a generation. Russia is waging an aggressive campaign of hybrid actions against the Alliance, targeting critical infrastructure sabotage, acts of violence, escalation through cyber activities, military provocations and destabilising activities at Allied borders. It is advancing its nuclear capacity and employing a posture of strategic intimidation.
To address these challenges, Allies have significantly strengthened their defence spending and production, boosting their capacity to deploy quickly in the face of any contingency. They have agreed a new NATO Force Structure to ensure that the Alliance is prepared to respond quickly and effectively, and they are implementing the 2023 Vilnius Summit and 2024 Washington Summit defence adaptation measures to boost readiness and reinforce deterrence and defence. These include the Readiness Action Plan (RAP) and longer-term defence transformation efforts to modernise NATO for a new era of collective defence.