Partnership for Peace

Partnership for Peace
NATO HeadquartersBrussels, Belgium
TypeIntergovernmental organisation
Membership18 participating states
Establishment
• Founded
1994
Website
www.nato.int
1994 Moldovan postage stamp dedicated to the Partnership for Peace

The Partnership for Peace (PfP; French: Partenariat pour la paix) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) program aimed at creating trust and cooperation between the member states of NATO and other states mostly in Europe, including post-Soviet states; 18 states are members.[1] The program contains 6 areas of cooperation, which aims to build relationships with partners through military-to-military cooperation on training, exercises, disaster planning and response, science and environmental issues, professionalization, policy planning, and relations with civilian government.[2][3] During policy negotiations in the 1990s, a primary controversy regarding PfP was its ability to be interpreted as a program that is a stepping stone for joining NATO with full Article 5 guarantees.

Amidst the security concerns in Eastern Europe after the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union, and also due to the failure of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), the program was launched during the summit in Brussels, Belgium between January 10 and 11, 1994.[4] In the process, neutral countries also faced a situation in which they had to reconsider maintaining military neutrality; therefore, countries such as Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the Partnership for Peace field activities in 1997.[5]

In 2002, it began the Individual Partnership Action Plan to provide members an opportunity to be granted further assistance from NATO without having to commit to becoming full members of NATO.[6] The program has additionally started an initiative for education, specifically military education. Over the course of its creation, the program has struggled with funding due to its ever-changing formation of members.[6]

  1. ^ North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (December 3, 2009). "Partner countries". Retrieved December 23, 2009.
  2. ^ "Partnership for Peace programme". NATO.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Sunley, Johnathan. Tasks for NATO II: improve the partnership for peace. OCLC 82596203.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).