Since its activation last year, NATO’s new land component headquarters, Allied Land Command – or LANDCOM – has looked for innovative ways to apply the lessons learned predominantly from recent experiences in Afghanistan where NATO began leading the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2003. 

Beginning 2015, NATO’s Allied Command for Operations (ACO) will transition from a deployed, operational force structure to a ready, contingency-based posture. Inherently that will require NATO nations to maintain forces that are ready to respond to every imaginable crisis anywhere in the world once the Alliance agrees it is critical to its own geographic security and strategic interests.