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coalition forces in the Gulf. The AMF started to withdraw in March. Summing up, it
could be said that in the end, the first “live” operation of German combat units was a
successful, albeit rather rugged premiere.

After these events, NATO’s strategy and the image of war began to change
considerably.
At first, the AMF wasn’t too much affected by the new perspectives. In the mid-
1990s, however, the final stage of its history began. The general setting was the
development of NATO’s strategy after 1990 in connection with the fundamental changes
in the Alliance’s command structure. The strategy papers of 1991, 1999 and 2006 as well
as the deployment of NATO forces in Operation “Allied Force” against Yugoslavia are
distinct milestones on the road to a considerable extension of the strategic outlook. The
East-West conflict lost more and more of its importance and was replaced by a more
global perspective.
In the late 1990s the AMF in its actual complexion had become obsolete. This was in
part due to increasing lack of tactical capabilities and of composition and in part lagging
behind the new innovations in the field of information technology.
NATO therefore decided to make a completely fresh start. It proved to be considerably
less expensive to establish an entirely new force which was fully integrated into the
new overall concept of NATO from the outset. In August 2002, the Defense Planning
Committee adopted a formal decision to disband the AMF L and replace it with the
NATO Response Force (NRF).

From a historical perspective, the Allied Mobile Force, the UKMF and the Rapid
Defense Joint Task Force a kind of special acid test for the flexibility of NATO’s strategy
both in the Cold War and in the post-1990 period. In the Cold War, the AMF was a
limited attempt by NATO to overcome its military shortcomings on its flanks in Europe.
The importance of the AMF had always remained limited, not least because the Alliance
had focused on the main battle forces in the Central Region of Europe and the question
of nuclear first use. But, and this aspect is very important, the discussions about a use
of US-forces that were assigned to NATO in the Middle East brought a complete new
element on the agenda.
What role NATO will play in a global context today and in future is not clear. In the
meantime, the mobile response forces will constitute a major focal point of the Alliance.
Today, however, nothing gets stuck in theory, plans or exercises. Whether NATO will
become a global alliance with regional problems or persists as a regional alliance with
global problems remains to be seen.

This text is based on the following articles:
- Bernd Lemke, Crisis Management in Turkey and the Problem of Escalation, The
Allied Mobile Force 1961 – 2003 and the Future of NATO’s South-Eastern Flank, in:
Atlantic Voices, Vol. 3 – Issue 9, September 2013, download: http://www.ata-sec.org/
publications/atlantic-voices.