The new Strategic Concept will have to guide the next stage in NATO’s evolution. The time has now come for NATO 3.0. An Alliance which can defend the 900 million citizens of NATO countries against the threats we face today, and will face in the coming decade. The Strategic Concept is the blueprint for that new NATO, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated.

“Collective defence will remain the essential core of the Alliance. And that continues to require effective military forces. But to be effective today, we need forces that are deployable across Alliance territory and beyond. The Strategic Concept must set out a clear vision for Allies to guide the reform of their forces – less investment in static forces and concrete, more forces that can move, can stay and can succeed wherever they are sent.

But today, defence of our territory and our citizens doesn’t begin and end at the border. It can start in Kandahar. It can start in cyberspace. And NATO needs to be able to defend across the spectrum,” ATO Secretary General said in his speech at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), Brussels.