| dc.description.abstract | The NATO Summit of Heads of State and Government were held on 19th - 20th November, 2010 in Lisbon, Portugal. At this Summit, the heads of State adopted a new Strategic Concept for the alliance. The concept re-emphasised the safeguarding of freedom and security for all NATO members and reaffirmed the Allies’commitment to Article 5. The Lisbon Summit Declaration states in more detail what NATO should do, amongst other, to increase its ability to meet challenges close to NATO territory. Two of these concern the NATO Command Structure (NCS). Firstly, the NCS will re-establish a regional focus for its operational level headquarters, and secondly the NCS will have a new relationship with national headquarters. Both these measures can be traced to the Norwegian non-paper “Strengthening NATO- Raising its profile and ensuring its relevance” from 2008. This thesis has focused on possible challenges that may occur when the link between NCS and national headquarters are revitalised. The detailed focus has been on the Norwegian national joint headquarter (NJHQ) and the challenges it may face. The thesis concludes that at a formal link between NCS and NJHQs will be beneficial for the alliance. In particular the Norwegian NJHQ can contribute to NCS with its geographical expertise and situational awareness in the northern region. In the same regard, if a crisis management operation takes place in the northern region, the NJHQ can support the NATO Commander during the operation. On the other hand, this thesis has also identified areas which need to be addressed before the link can be established. Command and Control arrangements and interoperability issues are the main challenges | en_US |
