NATO’s ability to deter, defend, and, if necessary, fight and prevail, depends not only on military strength, but on the Alliance’s capacity to absorb shocks, adapt under pressure, and sustain operations over time. Resilience is a core component of credible deterrence and defence.
Hostile efforts to disrupt and destabilize Allied societies are not new, but they are more persistent, coordinated, and difficult to attribute today. Allies and partners now face continuous pressure below the threshold of armed conflict, including cyber-attacks, information manipulation, political interference, sabotage of critical infrastructure, and other hybrid activities. These actions are intended to stoke fear and erode trust, ultimately fracturing democratic societies while stressing the Alliance.
National Resilience, Collective Defence
Resilience is understood as both a national responsibility and a collective commitment against these threats. Allies have agreed to invest in capabilities countering hybrid attacks, strengthening civil preparedness, protecting critical infrastructure, and improving information sharing. The Alliance is clear; collective defence applies across the full spectrum of threats, from larger scale attacks that might trigger the use of NATO’s Article 5, to hybrid threats.
The military dimension of resilience demands specific attention. Ensuring the Alliance’s Military Instrument of Power can function, adapt, and endure strategic shocks and sustained pressure requires dedicated analysis and tailored frameworks. This is where Allied Command Transformation (ACT) has focused its efforts.
ACT’s Focus on Military Resilience
ACT’s work centres on Military Resilience and, critically, on the interdependencies between the military and the other resilience layers (civil and social). The 2021 NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept identified Layered Resilience as one of five Warfare Development Imperatives, highlighting the need for the Alliance to absorb shocks and fight on across all domains. Allied Joint Doctrine further frames resilience as the ability to sustain long and protracted campaigns, regardless of preference.
Within this broader framework, Allied Command Transformation leads the development of the Layered Resilience Concept and its associated NATO Military Resilience Risk Assessment. While civil preparedness is essential, resilience in support of deterrence and defence requires a military instrument capable under sustained pressure, adaptable through disruption, and consistently generating effects across all domains.
Military Resilience is defined as the continuous ability of the NATO Military Instrument of Power to deter, defend, and when required by Allies, support the civil environment. This requires forces that can anticipate, adapt, and prepare for strategic shocks, and when necessary, withstand, respond to, and recover from both short-term disruptions and protracted crises.
Layered Resilience recognizes that no single layer can function in isolation. Military effectiveness depends on resilient civil infrastructure, logistics, and governance. Civil resilience relies on a credible and adaptable military instrument. Societal resilience underpins both. The strength of the Alliance lies not only in each layer individually, but in how effectively they interact and align under stress.
Endurance as a Strategic Investment
Resilience is incompatible with complacency. It requires continuous adaptation and evolution. Building and sustaining military resilience demands intentional choices, resources, and long-term planning. It requires higher upfront costs and difficult trade-offs between capacity and capability and requires a thorough consideration of the risks the Alliance is willing to take. Resilience begins with asking hard questions and ends with making hard decisions. It demands a risk management approach and a whole of society perspective. But it provides insurance against failure in the most demanding scenarios the Alliance may face.
Through the Layered Resilience Concept and the NATO Military Resilience Risk Assessment, Allied Command Transformation is providing the Alliance with the framework, tools, and shared understanding needed to build and sustain a resilient Military Instrument of Power. One that can deter and defend today, adapt to tomorrow’s threats, and endure the long campaigns that define modern conflict.