General André Lanata, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, hosted his counterpart General Tod D. Wolters, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, on December 9th, 2020.
The encounter of the two military leaders, at the helm of the two NATO Strategic Commands – Allied Command Transformation and Allied Command Operations – comes as the two Strategic Commands continue their shared task of providing rigorous military advice to the Alliance. Allied Command Operations’ Concept for the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area operationalises NATO’s new military strategy to face the challenges of today’s complex and fluid security environment. Allied Command Transformation’s NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept provides a bold “North Star” for NATO’s military development towards 2040, designing, developing and delivering the military instrument the Alliance needs to maintain its military advantage in the decades to come. Developed in parallel, both documents have strong linkages and a natural complementarity, with the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept developing critical areas for the execution of the Concept for the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area, and both documents setting the Alliance on a path towards a more anticipatory and proactive military posture.
The development of the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept was undertaken in close cooperation with Allied Command Operations, through continuous and open collaboration between the two commands. As a package of NATO’s best military advice, the NATO Military Strategy, the Concept for the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area and the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept are mutually reinforcing and demonstrate the close working relationship between NATO’s two Strategic Commands and the commitment they share towards solving the challenges NATO faces today, and tomorrow.