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Although the formal link between the United Nations and the North Atlantic Alliance has been enshrined in their respective founding documents since the foundation of the Alliance in 1949, working relations between the United Nations and the Alliance remained limited in the first decades.
The situation changed in 1992, against the background of growing conflict in the western Balkans, where their respective roles in crisis management led to an intensification of practical cooperation between the two organisations.
In July 1992, NATO ships belonging to the Alliance's Standing Naval Force Mediterranean, assisted by NATO Maritime Patrol Aircraft, began monitoring operations in the Adriatic in support of a UN arms embargo against all republics of the former Yugoslavia. A few months later, in November, NATO and the Western European Union (WEU) began enforcement operations in support of UN Security Council resolutions aimed at preventing the escalation of the conflict.
The readiness of the Alliance to support peacekeeping operations under the authority of the UN Security Council was formally stated by NATO foreign ministers in December 1992. Measures already being taken by NATO countries, individually and as an Alliance, were reviewed and the Alliance indicated that it was ready to respond positively to further initiatives that the UN Secretary General might take in seeking Alliance assistance in this field. A number of measures were subsequently taken, including joint maritime operations under the authority of the NATO and WEU Councils; NATO air operations; close air support for the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR); air strikes to protect UN "Safe Areas"; and contingency planning for other options which the United Nations might take.
Following the signature of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Dayton Agreement) on 14 December 1995, NATO was given a mandate by the United Nations, on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 1031, to implement the military aspects of the peace agreement. This was NATO’s first peacekeeping operation. A NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR) began operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina to fulfil this mandate on 16 December 1995. One year later, it was replaced by a NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR). Throughout their mandates both multinational forces worked closely with other international organisations and humanitarian agencies on the ground, including UN agencies such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN International Police Task Force (IPTF).
From the onset of the conflict in Kosovo in 1998 and throughout the crisis, close contacts were maintained between the UN Secretary General and NATO’s Secretary General. Actions were taken by the Alliance in support of UN Security Council resolutions both during and after the conflict. The Kosovo Force (KFOR) was deployed on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of 12 June 1999 to provide an international security presence as the prerequisite for peace and reconstruction of Kosovo.
In 2000 and 2001, NATO and the United Nations also cooperated successfully in containing major ethnic discord in southern Serbia and preventing a full-blown civil war in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 1.
More recently, cooperation between NATO and the UN has played a key role in Afghanistan. On 11 August 2003, the Alliance formally took over the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a UN-mandated force, originally tasked with helping provide security in and around Kabul. ISAF has subsequently been authorised by a series of UN Security Council resolutions to expand its presence into other regions of the country to extend the authority of the central government and to facilitate development and reconstruction. The Alliance also temporarily deployed extra forces to Afghanistan to increase ISAF’s support for the Afghan authorities’ efforts to provide a secure environment for presidential elections in October 2004 and for the parliamentary and municipal elections in September 2005.
In Iraq, under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1546 and at the request of the Iraqi Interim Government, NATO is providing assistance in training and equipping Iraqi security forces.
In June 2005, following a request from the African Union and in close coordination with the United Nations and the European Union, NATO agreed to support the African Union in the expansion of its mission to end the continuing violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. NATO assisted by airlifting peacekeepers from African troop-contributing countries to the region over the summer months, and also helped train AU troops in how to run a multinational military headquarters and how to manage intelligence.
