NATO and the North Atlantic ─ Revitalising Collective Defence

The book analyses the renewed importance of the North Atlantic for NATO in the face of new security challenges

This Whitehall Paper explores the renewed importance of the North Atlantic Ocean to NATO’s security through the lenses of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway in particular. These three NATO members form the territorial rim around the North Atlantic and its peripheral seas. All are maritime nations that have historically taken prime responsibility for security in the region and together with Iceland they form the front line to a resurgent Russian maritime capability. These three counties, with support from the rest of the northern region, must take the lead to ensure that NATO and its partners devote sufficient resources to this aspect of NATO’s area of responsibility.

John Andreas Olsen is a colonel in the Royal Norwegian Air Force, currently assigned to London as defence attache. He is also a visiting professor at the Swedish Defence University and a non-resident senior fellow of the Mitchell Institute. His previous assignments include tours as director of security analyses in the Norwegian MoD, deputy commander at NATO Headquarters, Sarajevo, dean of the Norwegian Defence University College and head of the college’s division for strategic studies. Olsen is a graduate of the German Command and Staff College and has served as liaison officer to the German Operational Command and as military assistant to the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin. He has a doctorate from De Montfort University and a master’s degree from the University of Warwick. Olsen has published a series of books, including Strategic Air Power in Desert Storm (2003), John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power (2007), A History of Air Warfare (2010) and Airpower Reborn (2015).