American participation in the NATO multinational corps

The demise of the Soviet empire has required a reassessment of the security structures which have guided Western Europe through forty years of Cold War confrontation. The London and Rome Declarations have chartered a course for NATO that recognizes an end to the monolithic threat of the Soviet Union, a need to redirect strategic concepts, and the complementary role of other security forums. NATO elected to rely increasingly on multinational forces as a military tool of economy and solidarity. American military participation in the multinational arena needs to be studied carefully. The issues to work are not simple. The multinational corps, presently envisioned by NATO, is based on a political and not a military imperative; therefore, military credibility is an adjunct to political relevance. Multinationality poses many challenges at the operational level of war. The questions of organizational structure are manifold. Interoperability is an old subject in the Alliance that will take on added significance and complexity as multinationalism is extended below the Army Group. Command and control will not only be an issue of technological compatibility, but will also encompass the cultural differences of allies in speech and thought at the tactical level of war. The time has come for a serious approach to true multinational forces in NATO, but the journey will be neither quick nor easy.