North Atlantic Council

North Atlantic Council
Coat of arms or logo
History
Founded4 April 1949; 74 years ago (1949-04-04)
Leadership
Deputy Secretary-General
Seats
Meeting place
NATO headquarters
Brussels, Belgium
Website
http://www.nato.int/

The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the principal political decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), consisting of permanent representatives of its member countries. It was established by Article 9 of the North Atlantic Treaty, and it is the only body in NATO that derives its authority explicitly from the treaty.

Powers and duties

The North Atlantic Treaty gave the NAC the power to set up subsidiary bodies for various policy functions, including a defense committee to implement other parts of the treaty. Since 1952, the NAC has been in permanent session. The NAC can be held at the Permanent Representative Level (PermReps), or can be composed of member states' Ministers of State, Defense, or Heads of Government. The NAC has the same powers regardless of the formation under which it meets. The NAC meets twice a week: every Tuesday, for an informal lunch discussion; and every Wednesday for a decision-taking session. Usually, meetings occur amongst the permanent representatives who are the senior permanent member of each delegation and is generally a senior civil servant or an experienced ambassador (and holding that diplomatic rank). The list of permanent representatives may be found on the NATO website.

The 31 members of NATO have diplomatic missions to the organization through embassies in Belgium. The meetings of the NAC are chaired by the Secretary General and, when decisions have to be made, action is agreed upon on the basis of unanimity and common accord. There is no voting or decision by majority. Each nation represented at the NAC table or on any of its subordinate committees retains complete sovereignty and responsibility for its own decisions.

An overview of NATO's military structures:

Liaison:      Provides advice and support to the NAC
Political strategic level:
North Atlantic Council
Secretary General of NATO
Brussels, BE
International Staff
Brussels, BE
Military strategic level:


Chair of the NATO Military Committee

NATO HQ, Brussels, BE
Strategic commands:


Supreme Allied Commander Europe
Allied Command Operations,
Mons, BE


Supreme Allied Commander Transformation
Allied Command Transformation
Norfolk, US
ACO commands:ACT commands:
Allied Air Command Allied Air Command
Ramstein, DE
Joint Warfare Centre Joint Warfare Centre
Stavanger, NO
Allied Maritime Command Allied Maritime Command
Northwood, GB
Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre
Lisbon, PT
Allied Land Command Allied Land Command
İzmir, TR
Joint Force Training Centre Joint Force Training Centre
Bydgoszcz, PL
Misc.:
Joint Support and Enabling Command Ulm, DE
Operational commands:NATO Communication and Information Systems Group Communications & Information Systems Group Mons, BE Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO
Oeiras, PT
Joint Force Command Norfolk
Norfolk, US
Allied Joint Force Command Naples Allied Joint Force Command Naples
Naples, IT
Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum
Brunssum, NL
Response Force: Multinational Corps Southeast
Sibiu, RO
Multinational Corps Northeast
Szczecin, PL

Other Staffs and Commands Responsible to SACEUR:


This page was last updated at 2024-02-13 00:06 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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