Operational Art and NATO C4I Interoperabity - An Oxymoron

摘要

Despite the numerous successes enjoyed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for over fifty years, there are Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) interoperability deficiencies that should be acknowledged and corrected. As NATO continues to modify its doctrine towards the updated mission of collective security in Europe, these C4I interoperability challenges are ever increasing in importance. C4I interoperability is important because it is the glue that binds the tenets of operational art that in turn is the foundation for doctrine. NATO's C4I interoperability challenges existed over the course of the Cold War and operations in both Bosnia and Kosovo. NATO's C4I interoperability challenges can be overcome by enhancing the Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) concept, choosing future operational commanders from nations capable of providing a C4I architecture, ensuring future member nations are in compliance with appropriate C4I standardization agreements, and investing in Network Centric Warfare (NCW). NATO's future operational mission successes can very well be determined by the efforts placed in resolving the C4I interoperability challenges today.