On the 30. August 2021 the National Defense Magazine published an article analysing NATO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, looking into what lessons were learned.

As you can read in the article, for the first time in its history, the Alliance had to face a simultaneous threat to the security of all its members, and had to react appropriately. Despite the challenge, NATO proved its resilience by ensuring the health crisis did not turn into a security crisis by maintaining operational readiness and by supporting ongoing missions.

At first NATO was, like much of the world, taken by surprise by the scale and speed of the unfolding crisis. As the article notes, several mechanisms were put in place to react to the COVID-19 Pandemic as efficiently as possible. This was achieved by providing much-needed medical equipment to Alliance members and partners, as well as by sharing information and coordinating with civilian authorities and international organizations such as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the European Union (EU).

The JALLC contributed to NATO's response to the COVID-19 Pandemic through various initiatives including the NATO Lessons Learned Conference on lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic and through its analysis activities. You can read more about the NATO Lessons Learned Conference here and more about our analysis activities here.

You can read more about NATO's response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in this factsheet.