Earlier this year, in July, the JALLC published its report on NATO’s Involvement in Evacuation Operations – Lessons from Operation ALLIED SOLACE.

In summer 2021, following the collapse of the Afghan government and the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces, NATO focused on ensuring the safe departure of personnel from Allied and partner countries, and NATO-affiliated Afghans. Operation ALLIED SOLACE (OAS) was the NATO operation to receive NATO-affiliated Afghans evacuated from Afghanistan in Temporary Staging Areas and to arrange their onward transport and resettlement in Allied territories.

OAS was a great success in terms of the number of people evacuated and resettled. However, NATO recognized that there was potential to learn from OAS in order to ensure that future NATO involvement in evacuation operations could be executed with the benefit of the experiences from this operation.  Against this background, the need was identified to analyse and report on NATO’s involvement in Evacuation Operations, focusing on lessons from OAS, and to assess the relevance of OAS lessons to future NATO involvement in evacuation operations.

The report, presents a number of Key Lessons identified from the JALLC’s study, including those relating to the importance of prior planning coupled with the need for flexibility and adaptability of NATO forces in crisis. These Lessons will go on to inform any potential future NATO Evacuation Operation to ensure that the Alliance continues to benefit from valuable experiences and lessons from its operations.

You can find out more about this report by downloading our factsheet here.