NATO and the Protection of the Environment: Enlarging the Legal Commitments within the North Atlantic Security Paradigm

The relationship between NATO and environmental protection may appear not so intuitive, given the Alliance’s prima facie interest in the security and stability dynamics of the Euro-Atlantic region. However, the following paper aims to analyse NATO’s interest in environmental issues since the 1970s, when the environment began a topic of common concern for the international community. Moreover, NATO has progressively focused on a specific issue in environmental protection, namely the international combat against climate change. Climate alterations not only affect the stability of the Euro-Atlantic region due to natural disasters that impact on the population, but also represent an element of instability due to new migratory flows and displaced populations that may trickle to the territory where NATO operates. It is for this reason that NATO has intensified its awareness especially on the issue of climate change by expanding its operational scope under Article 2 of the North Atlantic Treaty.