There have been a number of rather high-profile debates in some U.S. political quarters about the importance of NATO and it’s meaning and status in today’s world. In honor of NATO’s 75th Anniversary celebration this year, we reached out to General Philippe Lavigne who recently completed his three years in charge of Supreme Allied Command Transformation Norfolk (SACT). We asked him to share his perspectives on the historic alliance’s pivotal role in confronting modern threats and ensuring global security. General Lavigne retired from the military in September.
CoVaBIZ: Norfolk is NATO’s home in North America. Can you share a bit about the roles that Allied Command Transformation and Joint Force Command play in advancing NATO’s mission?
Gen. Lavigne: NATO has two strategic commands, Allied Command Transformation (ACT) right here in Norfolk, and Allied Command Operations or ACO, commanded by SACEUR in Belgium. The latter has three subordinate Joint Force Commands, including JFC-Norfolk that sits a stone’s throw away from my headquarters. As the names indicate, we are focused on two complementary tasks. To put it simply, ACO on current operations, ensuring NATO readiness, with JFC-Norfolk in particular being entrusted with defending the strategic lines of communication between Europe and North America.
ACT in Norfolk, is focused on the transformation of NATO’s military beyond today. That means looking out over the horizon to determine what a future security environment might look like, identifying the main threats and what forces and capabilities NATO will need to maintain its edge. From there, we work on concepts, designs and the development of those forces and capabilities, all the while looking to innovation, experimentation, wargaming, modelling and simulation, and lessons learned (including from the war in Ukraine) to produce better results. We also work on improving the interoperability, training and education of the Alliance through exercises, education events and the development of a wide network including Allies and Partners, academia and industry.
How has NATO evolved since its inception, particularly after the end of the Cold War?
NATO just celebrated its 75th anniversary with a Summit in Washington in July and throughout its long history, the Alliance has always evolved in the face of developing threats. Originally focused on ensuring the defense of those Allies who wanted to be able to decide their own fate against the threats coming from across the Iron Curtain, NATO went through some soul-searching after 1989. But because the world remains a dangerous place, the world’s most successful military alliance assumed an increasingly proactive role in the international community, including dealing with a series of crises in the Balkans. We should also remember that the only time Article V was triggered in NATO (that’s the One for All, All for One mutual defense Article in the Washington Treaty) was on the day after the 9/11 attack.
NATO Norfolk's Flag Plaza
Russia’s attacks on Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 brought war back to the continent of Europe and made it clear that NATO needed to ensure its deterrence and defense posture remained credible and effective. In March 2022 the Allies agreed to deploy significant forces to ensure the defense of its Eastern flank and to reassure its members there. The 2022 NATO Strategic Concept recognizes Russia as the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to the peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic Area.
As we look around, it is clear that our security environment is increasingly complex and riven by competition. A number of players, including non-state ones, have shown themselves willing to disrupt and endanger the system of rules put in place after WWII to provide the peace and security needed for our societies and our now 1 billion citizens to prosper.
NATO is hard at work ensuring that we are adapting to meet these new challenges.
In today’s geopolitical landscape, what are the primary threats that NATO is focused on addressing?
Following on the answer to the previous question, Russia and the threat it poses to European security and terrorism represent the main threats. Putin’s willingness to use force to pursue revanchist aims undermine stability and security throughout the Euro-Atlantic Area.
China is not defined as a threat by NATO, yet its ambitions and policies represent a challenge to our shared interests, security and values.
NATO remains a defensive Alliance with deterrence a core part of our mission, ensuring we can continue maintain our freedom to decide how to run our affairs and uphold our shared values: individual liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. All of which has to be backed by a credible transatlantic defense.
With emerging challenges such as cyber warfare and disinformation, how is NATO adapting its strategies?
ACT in particular is hard at work looking out ahead to try and define what new threats are out there, and how we need to adapt in NATO to face up to them. We are working on concepts, which will be implemented to produce new capabilities, new training and exercises which will ensure our deterrence and defense remain as credible as they were for the last 75 years.
One particular challenge is that some of these new threats are difficult to define and attribute and therefore might be tempting for those seeking to undermine NATO’s unity and resolve, so we need to get better at identifying them, at strengthening our collective resilience and ensuring our systems and networks can continue to function. We must protect and defend our citizens in all dimensions: physical, virtual and cognitive.
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing NATO in the next decade?
As a previous SACT used to say, “the challenge is a little like changing the wheels on a moving car.” We need to have a credible set of forces and capabilities right now, while at the same time be ready for the threats of tomorrow. That is what ACT is trying to do, through a profound and rapid transformation to ensure we continue to maintain the necessary edge to deter potential and real threats and defend our members, today, tonight and tomorrow.
What is the importance of continued public and political support for NATO within member countries?
We are fortunate in being an Alliance of democracies with a population of 1 billion fellow citizens. That means, among other things, an extraordinary pool of innovation. But that also means we need to ensure that the costs and efforts needed to ensure our deterrence and defense are understood and supported by those who elect the governments in our respective nations. NATO is a team of 32 member countries that is as strong as the collective will of its citizens and governments.
There’s been criticism from certain quarters that some NATO members aren’t contributing their fair share to the alliance’s defense budget. Please put this into perspective by sharing how NATO defines and assesses what constitutes a ‘fair share’ of contributions from each member country? Upon what criteria are the assessments made?
The thing to understand is that the members support NATO both directly and indirectly. NATO, the organization, including its headquarters here and in Europe, its programs and capabilities (like its command and control systems) are funded directly by the nations on an agreed cost-share formula among all 32 Allies that is based on each member’s Gross National Income.
What is referred to as indirect support is when NATO Allies provide NATO with the forces and capabilities for the Alliance’s deterrence and defense and for military operations. Since 2006, Allies have pledged to commit a minimum of 2% of their GDP to defense spending, with 23 Allies expected to meet that target in 2024, a significant increase from a low of 3% in 2014, and still progressing.
They also agreed that at least 20% of defense expenditure should go to the acquisition of modern capabilities.
From your experience, what has been the most significant change within NATO since you started your career?
I qualified as an Air Force pilot in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down. There were 16 Allies back then. And we have doubled that number, with three new Allies finalizing their military integration during my time in Norfolk: North Macedonia, Finland and Sweden.
Some might be tempted to say that prior to 1989, the mission was simple: keep the Warsaw Pact at bay. I’m not sure it was ever that simple, but I would agree that today’s world is so much more complex, with new threats appearing alongside old threats that are evolving into new shapes and directions, with a blurring between the civilian and military worlds. The complexity of that picture today is a significant challenge for all of us.
What do you and NATO personnel like most about calling Hampton Roads home?
Nature’s beauty in its many forms and the many opportunities to see it up close, on the water, on a bike or on leisurely walks. The generosity and wonderful welcome we have received throughout the United States but in NATO’s home in North America especially. Finally, the many ways in which you can experience the arts, old and new, high and low. From opera to pop concerts, from ballet to line dancing, from the Chrysler to street art and fairs.
If you could invite any three people, living or dead, to a dinner party with family and staff, who would they be, and why?
I would want a good mix—to challenge those entrusted with preparing the menu and keeping a well-stocked bar. Something that would please the different palates of Leonardo da Vinci, Chuck Yeager and the Marquis de Lafayette. Da Vinci for his visionary inventiveness and many innovations, Yeager, the fastest man alive and fellow pilot for his tales of derring-do, and Lafayette, the embodiment of the friendship that has united the United States and France since his arrival in 1777, for tales of his revolutionary experiences right here in Virginia. Ideally, Da Vinci would immortalize the dinner with a quick drawing, which I would get to keep.
