NATO and Nuclear Weapons

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NATO Summit, Strasbourg-Kehl, 3 - 4 April 2009

NATO's sixtieth anniversary summit at Strasbourg in France and Kehl in Germany on 3 - 4 April 2009 has launched a review of the Strategic Concept, the Alliance's highest level policy document. The current Strategic Concept was adopted in 1999 and set out NATO's commitment to nuclear weapons as the "supreme guarantee" of allied security. "The presence of United States conventional and nuclear forces in Europe remains vital to the security of Europe," the document states.

Acronym coverage of the summit:

• NATO Prepares to Review the Strategic Concept, by Martin Butcher, April 2009
• natomonitor.blogspot.com, for day by day coverage of the summit

Official Documents:

NATO Strasbourg / Kehl Summit, 3 - 4 April

• Declaration on Alliance Security, 4 April 2009
• Strasbourg / Kehl Summit Declaration, 4 April 2009
• Declaration on Afghanistan, 4 April 2009

Related Documents

• President Obama speech on nuclear disarmament, Prague, 5 April 2009
• Joint Statement by Presidents Medvedev and Obama on strategic reductions, 1 April 2009

Pre-Summit briefings:

• At the starting blocks: NATO Ministers prepare for Strasbourg-Kehl, by Martin Butcher, March 2009
• The Future of NATO: Discussions at the Munich Security Conference 2009, Martin Butcher, February 2009
• NATO nuclear policy: Opportunities to Strengthen the NPT, January 2009
• The Future of NATO and the 2009 Summit, by Martin Butcher, December 2008

See also:

• General calls for Trident rethink, former NATO Commander General Jack Sheehan interview with the BBC, 29 January 2009
• Letter to the Times by Field Marshal Lord Bramall, General Lord Ramsbotham and General Sir Hugh Beach, 16 January 2009
• Toward a nuclear-free world: a German view, By Helmut Schmidt, Richard von Weizsäcker, Egon Bahr and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, International Herald Tribune, 9 January 2009
• What Price Nuclear Blackmail? General Sir Hugh Beach, Issue No. 88, Summer 2008

For Acronym Coverage of the Munich Security Conference and the NATO informal Defence Ministers' meeting in February visit the NATO monitor blog at:

• natomonitor.blogspot.com

Foreign Ministers' Meetings, Brussels, 2 - 3 December 2008

Acronym consultant Martin Butcher reports on developments in NATO, including the latest ministers' meetings via the natomonitor blog.

• natomonitor.blogspot.com/

Background Documents

• The Alliance's Strategic Concept Approved by the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. on 23rd and 24th April 1999
• Letter to the Times by Field Marshal Lord Bramall, General Lord Ramsbotham and General Sir Hugh Beach, 16 January 2009
• NATO at 60: Towards a New Strategic Concept, UK Secretary of State for Defence John Hutton speech, 15 January 2009
• Shared Destinies, IPPR Commission on National Security Interim Report, 27 November 2008
• Strategic Security Blog entries on NATO, including latest figures on US nuclear deployments in Europe

Articles from Disarmament Diplomacy

• What Price Nuclear Blackmail? General Sir Hugh Beach, Issue No. 88, Summer 2008
• Bucharest Summit: US Missile Defence Bases Continue to Divide NATO, by Nicola Butler and Martin Butcher, Issue No.87, Spring 2008
• NATO, Riga and Beyond, by Martin Butcher, Issue No. 82, Spring 2007
• NPT à la Carte? NATO and Nuclear Non-Proliferation, by Nicola Butler, April 2005
• Deep Divisions over Iraq at NATO's Istanbul Summit, by Nicola Butler, Issue No. 78, July/August 2004
• Tactical Nuclear Weapons: Europe's Redundant WMD by Hugh Beach, Issue No. 77, May/June 2004
• NATO's Istanbul Challenge: Transformation or Irrelevance? by Nicola Butler, Issue No. 77, May/June 2004
• NATO'S Future: To the Greater Middle East and Beyond? by Nicola Butler, Issue No.75, January / February 2004

See also: Acronym's NATO archive.

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