⚡ NATO no longer bases its planning on the concept of a single, unified eastern flank. The Alliance’s deterrence and defence tasks are now divided across three extensive operational areas.

🇺🇲 The north-western sector — the ‘North-West’ Joint Operations Area (JOA-NW), under the command of Joint Force Command (JFC) in Norfolk (USA), links the North Atlantic with the Far North, bringing together allies from the North Atlantic and Scandinavian regions. The key land-based task here is not only the territorial defence of Finland or Norway, but also ensuring the link between the deployment of reinforcements from across the ocean, the defence of the Nordic countries, access to maritime routes, and the conduct of ground operations in the Far North.

🇳🇱 The Joint Operations Area ‘Centre’ (JOA-C) — the central theatre of operations under the command of Joint Force Command (JFC) in Brunssum (the Netherlands) — forms NATO’s main land-air front. It stretches from the Baltic states through Poland and Germany towards Hungary, covering areas from which the most immediate land-based threat from Russia and Belarus originates (including the Kaliningrad region and the Suwałki Corridor), as well as the main routes for the deployment of reinforcements from Western Europe.

🇮🇹 The Joint Operations Area ‘South-East’ (JOA-SE), under the command of the Joint Force Command (JFC) in Naples (Italy), encompasses Romania, Bulgaria, the Black Sea region, the Balkans, Turkey, Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. The land-based tasks here are no less complex: deterrence on the approaches to the Black Sea, the deployment of reinforcements to Romania and Bulgaria, and ensuring operational coordination in a region characterised by political tension.

@eurasianchoice