Interoperability is as much or more about human teamwork than it is about compatible machines and processes. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operational deployments, without respite since 1992,1 have spawned a nascent culture of multinational planning and operational teamwork among a host of militaries. This coalition culture is emerging in the same way as the joint operations culture has grown across the U.S. military since the watershed Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986.

Interoperability is as much or more about human teamwork than it is about compatible machines and processes. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operational deployments, without respite since 1992,1 have spawned a nascent culture of multinational planning and operational teamwork among a host of militaries. This coalition culture is emerging in the same way as the joint operations culture has grown across the U.S. military since the watershed Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986.

This assessment is a synthesis of recent research projects at the National Defense University (NDU). These projects included consultations with think tanks, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Allied Command Transformation, the International Staff and U.S. Mission, and U.S. Military Delegation at North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), and U.S. European Command (USEUCOM). Document analysis included review of the 2011 Capability Surveys from the NATO Defense Planning Process and Defense Intelligence Agency reports on allied capability projections. We conferred with U.S. Defense Attachés and Office of Defense Cooperation representatives in key European capitals. Finally, we have spoken with representatives of Allies in Washington, at NATO, and in capitals in order to understand as much as possible the factors bearing on their future capabilities decisions.