NATO and the UN in practice

NATO's relations with the United Nations : What does this mean in practice?

NATO's Secretary General reports regularly to the UN Secretary General on progress in NATO-led operations and on other key decisions of the North Atlantic Council in the area of crisis management and in the fight against terrorism. ... Read More

NATO's relations with the United Nations

In recent years, cooperation between NATO and the United Nations has developed well beyond their common engagement in bringing peace and stability to crisis-hit regions. Consultations with UN specialised bodies now cover a wide range of issues, including civil emergency planning, civil-military cooperation, combating human trafficking, action against mines, and the fight against terrorism. ... Read More

UN, NATO Vow to Cooperate on Regional Conflicts
January 24, 2007
Speaking in Brussels, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on closer cooperation between NATO and the UN on quelling regional conflicts in Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Sudan. Since the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has taken on policing and securitizing roles outside of Europe.NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer agreed with him, saying it is important for the two sides to enhance their relationship, as NATO has been increasingly operating under a UN umbrella or with the UN's blessing. Read More

State's Fried Says NATO not "Counterweight" to United Nations
By Vince Crawley
May 03
Washington -- The good news is that the United States and Europe are cooperating again; the bad news is that they are facing some of the world’s most dangerous, intractable problems, a senior U.S. diplomat says.
“Unilateralism is out. Effective multilateralism is in,” Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, said May 2 at a national conference of editorial writers in Washington.
Fried said the United States and Europe are “working to make NATO the centerpiece alliance through which the trans-Atlantic democratic community deals with security challenges around the world.”
But NATO is not a “counterweight” to the larger United Nations, Fried said.  The international organizations are “compatible,” he said, adding that NATO is different from the United Nations because it is an alliance of “trans-Atlantic democracy, so it’s based on underlying values,” and it also is a proven military alliance able to put together and deploy capable forces for specific missions. Read More

NATO and the UN initiatives

NATO and UN to strengthen cooperation

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited the UN on 19 and 20 September to discuss current operations and ideas for enhancing NATO-UN cooperation with Secretary General Kofi Annan.
A more structured relationship
The two Secretary Generals also discussed ideas for enhancing NATO-UN relations and agreed to pursue a deeper and more structured relationship between the two organisations. (...)
"We can, and should do much more together. We should, for example, talk about terrorism, and how to fight it most effectively. And we should have strategic discussions, on a regular basis, on the future of our shared missions, such as in Afghanistan , " Mr. De Hoop Scheffer said of NATO-UN relations in a policy speech at Columbia University ...Read More

NATO: Safeguarding Transatlantic Security

09/20/2005 - NATO
Speech by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at Columbia University  

Tackling terrorism effectively - and indeed, all the threats I mentioned -- requires international cooperation. On that, everyone can agree. But the devil is in the details – in agreeing on how exactly to go forward together. And that is where it can get complicated.If we do too little to take on the terrorist threat, we risk being attacked. If we do too much, we risk harming innocent people.
And while it is not directly a NATO issue, there is clearly a tension between the need to take measures within our countries to fight terrorism effectively, and the fundamental importance of preserving our political liberties. Read More