The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) embodies the transatlantic link that binds Europe and North America in a unique defence and security alliance. NATO's essential and enduring purpose, set out in the Washington Treaty, is to safeguard the freedom and security of all its members by political and military means.

To this end, NATO has provided for the collective defence of its members since its foundation in 1949. It has also acted as an essential forum for consultation on security issues of interest to its members, and as an essential pillar of peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.

With the end of the Cold War, the Alliance took on new fundamental tasks, including building security partnerships with democracies across Europe, through the Caucasus and into Central Asia. In response to changes in the overall security environment, the Alliance has taken on additional responsibilities. These include addressing both instability caused by regional and ethnic conflicts within Europe and threats emanating from beyond the Euro-Atlantic area.

Today, the Alliance is engaged in an increasingly broad range of activities, designed to promote cooperation with Russia, Ukraine and other countries outside NATO and to confront proactively the new security challenges of the 21st century, such as those posed by international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

In order to remain effective in defending and promoting security in this new and rapidly changing security environment, the Alliance is engaged in an ongoing transformation affecting all aspects of its agenda, with new missions, new members, new capabilities, new partnerships, and new ways of doing business.

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INTO THE FUTURE

NATO in the first decade of the 21st century has evolved considerably from the security alliance created in 1949. In the course of more than a half century of existence, both the Alliance and the wider world have developed in ways that NATO's founders could not have envisaged. NATO has also evolved from the institution that defended Western Europe for four decades during the Cold War, or even that which oversaw Europe's post-Cold War transition in the 1990s. With the integration of new member countries, a process of continuing adaptation is inevitable in order to accommodate the interests of the larger membership without adversely affecting the ability of the Alliance to take decisions in a timely fashion. Indeed, as the strategic environment continues to change, the pace of NATO's evolution will need to increase in order to meet new threats.

While the nature of the threats faced by member states and the way in which NATO deals with them are changing, the basic tenets of cooperation within the Alliance remain true to the principles of the Washington Treaty. NATO provides a transatlantic political-military framework for managing security challenges, linking European and North American interests as well as balancing those of its individual member countries.

NATO's on-going transformation is part of a process designed to enhance the security of Alliance member countries and the future stability and prosperity of the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole. Since the Prague Summit, Allies have intensified efforts to adapt NATO to today's challenges - defending common values such as respect for democracy and human rights; combating international terrorism and the threat posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; building security bridges with Russia and Ukraine; further developing the basis for close cooperation with other Partner countries; and, when other avenues have been exhausted, acting as an effective instrument for managing crises and ensuring that the effects of conflict do not spill over borders or threaten wider stability. It is a comprehensive task which depends on the backing and support of public opinion, in member and Partner countries alike, unwilling to accept the politics of conflict and determined to build security based on understanding and cooperation for the benefit of future generations.

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