Source: NATO
At the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., Heads of State and Government endorsed the Alliance’s updated Policy Guidelines on Counter-Terrorism. These Guidelines reflect the evolution of the threat of terrorism and of NATO’s work to combat terrorism over the last decade.
The updated Policy Guidelines focus NATO’s counter-terrorism work on three key areas: improving awareness of the terrorist threat; ensuring adequate capabilities and preparedness; and enhancing engagement and cooperation with NATO’s partner countries and other international organisations. Heads of State and Government also reiterated and refined the main principles of the Alliance’s fight against terrorism: compliance with international law, support to Allies and non-duplication and complementarity.
On the margins of the Washington Summit, the updated Policy Guidelines and their implications for NATO’s work to combat terrorism were outlined by the Secretary General’s Special Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism, Tom Goffus, in a session of NATO’s Public Forum, titled “Addressing the Evolving Threat of Terrorism” on 11 July 2024. “Our most important document after the Washington Treaty is the Strategic Concept,” he stated, while reflecting that terrorism is the most direct asymmetric threat to the security of citizens and to international peace and prosperity. “We now have defence plans both for Russia and for terrorism… we have the most detailed plans ever for terrorism,” he shared.
Click here to read the full Policy Guidelines on Counter-Terrorism.