NATO is an organization that is involved in responding to and managing complex crises, conflicts, and disasters. These activities demand a coordinated planned response across a wide spectrum of activities. To ensure the best possible outcome, it is essential that each mission/operation follows a carefully crafted and agreed Operations Plan (OPLAN) and that a feedback mechanism is in place to assess progress and provide timely advice and recommendations to decision makers.

The primary document to provide that feedback to the NATO Nations is the Periodic Mission Review (PMR).  The PMR is produced through Operations Assessment conducted at the Tactical, Operational, and Military-Strategic levels in order to inform NATO Nations of the progress towards achievement of the NATO End State and the objectives stated in the respective strategic OPLAN.

On 10 March 2023, the JALLC published its report on Military Strategic Assessment, focussing on how Operations Assessment is conducted in recent NATO missions/operations. The report is the culmination of the Joint Analysis project requested by the Assistant Chief of Staff for J5 at SHAPE with aim of better understanding how PMRs are developed and what can be done to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in informing decision makers.

The report presents several key findings and recommendations to improve how PMR’s are developed and SHAPE’s role therein. You can read more about the JALLC’s report on Military Strategic Assessment in our factsheet which you can download here.