The Strategic Concept is an official document that outlines NATO’s enduring purpose and nature and its fundamental security tasks. It also identifies the central features of the new security environment, specifies the elements of the Alliance’s approach to security and provides guidelines for the further adaptation of its military forces.NATO provides a unique forum for discussion and cooperation on defence and security issues in the sense that it not only brings together two continents – Europe and North America - but it also launches multinational initiatives and offers coordinated action in many different areas.While its activities have evolved over time in keeping with changes in the strategic environment, the basic tenets of cooperation within the Alliance remain true to the principles of the Washington Treaty: collective defence, the peaceful resolution of disputes and NATO’s defensive nature. These still characterize the Organization.In addition, NATO remains an essential transatlantic forum for consultation, which aims to defend and promote common values founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law, and continues to take decisions by consensus – a decision-making process that is one of the keys to the Alliance’s durability.
