NATO has published its Baseline Requirements for Resilience for the first time, setting out how Allied governments should strengthen civil preparedness, maintain essential services and improve cooperation between civilian and military authorities during crises and conflict, according to the Alliance.
The requirements are intended to support a whole-of-society approach to resilience, with NATO pointing to energy, food, water, healthcare, communications and other civilian systems as critical to both the functioning of society and the ability of armed forces to operate. The Alliance said the decision to publish the requirements was intended to broaden the group of governments, businesses and organisations involved in resilience planning and create a clearer shared understanding of what Allied countries are expected to prepare for.
The publication comes as NATO places greater emphasis on civil preparedness in response to hybrid attacks against infrastructure, digital networks and public services. At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, Allies agreed that up to 1.5% of GDP could be counted towards defence and security-related spending, including investment in resilience and civil preparedness. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said: “Individual Allied nations, and NATO as a whole, must be able to resist, respond to and quickly recover from shocks and disruptions. That is what resilience is all about.”
The release followed a meeting of NATO Resilience Policy Directors at headquarters in Brussels on 15 September, where officials discussed how the Alliance should strengthen civil preparedness and cooperation with industry. Representatives from the water, communications and energy sectors also took part, with discussions focused on how critical services could continue operating during emergencies and conflict. The work reflects the emphasis within the new baseline requirements on closer links between governments, armed forces and civilian infrastructure.
On 16 September, NATO policy directors also met senior representatives from the European Commission and European External Action Service to discuss the EU’s Preparedness Union Strategy. The meetings concluded with a scenario-based discussion involving Ukrainian authorities, who shared lessons from keeping essential services running under sustained attack.
For NATO, resilience is directly tied to military effectiveness because armed forces rely heavily on civilian transport, energy, communications, healthcare and other infrastructure to deploy and sustain forces. Publishing the requirements in full gives governments and industry a public reference point for the standards the Alliance is asking members to work towards.
