Publication

NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), is seen as a test of the allies’ military capabilities and their political will to undertake a complex mission in a distant land and to sustain that commitment. Since the Washington NATO Summit in 1999, the allies have sought to create a “new” NATO, capable of operating beyond the European theater to combat emerging threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). NATO has sought to be “global” in its geographic reach and in the development of nonmember partner states that can assist in achieving an agreed mission.