NATO activates Article 5 for the first time after the September 11 attacks

NATO Secretary General George Robertson did not yet say the words "Article 5" on the evening of September 11, 2001. But there is already talk of the solidarity of all NATO partners with the hard-hit ally.

“In this crucial moment, you can rely on us, on your 18 partners in North America and Europe,” Robertson promises the United States.

First alliance case

The next day the North Atlantic Council meets. NATO declares its solidarity with the Americans. And it goes even further: If it turns out that the attacks were coordinated from outside the USA, then that would fall under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, the famous promise of assistance.

Three weeks later, Robertson confirmed exactly that: the attacks were controlled from outside. "And that is therefore covered by Article 5, which stipulates that an armed attack on one or more Allies in Europe or North America will be considered an attack on all," continued the then NATO Secretary General. For the first and to date only time, NATO is activating this Article 5.

Unprepared for asymmetric attacks

But the alliance is not prepared for an opponent like the September 11th attackers, for internationally operating terrorist networks. Only a year earlier, the alliance had adopted a new strategy that also envisaged operations outside NATO's own territory. The background is the experiences from the wars in the disintegrating Yugoslavia.

But there is no plan for its strongest member to be attacked on its own territory, controlled by masterminds far from any NATO area. "Article 5 was originally intended when NATO was founded for attacks by states on states - or at the time by the Soviet Union on the Western alliance of states," explains Claudia Major, security expert at the German Marshall Fund.

Operational logic shifts

The attacks of September 11th set new priorities. They resulted in NATO concentrating more on so-called out-of-area operations than on "the traditional business of alliance defense," said Major.

With the out-of-area missions, NATO is expanding its radius of action, most clearly with the Afghanistan mission, but also with operations, for example, over the Mediterranean or later in Libya.

It is not the last change that NATO is going through. Even today she has to reposition herself. After the Russian annexation of Crimea, the attack on Ukraine and because the USA is insisting that the Europeans take more responsibility for themselves, the focus is again on classic national defense.

However, NATO today is "militarily stronger but politically weaker," says Claudia Major. Many Europeans no longer really know whether they can still rely on the USA and whether the transatlantic alliance, as it was designed, still holds.