NATO Strategic Direction-South Hub

At the 2016 Warsaw Summit, NATO approved the development of a framework to better understand challenges and threats emanating from Africa and the Middle East. As part of the Framework, The Southern Hub has been established at Allied Joint Force Command Naples in order to improve NATO’s awareness and understanding of the opportunities and challenges from those regions, while contributing to the overall coordination of NATO’s activities and efforts. The world faces a number of challenges and threats. Although NATO is no stranger to operating in Africa and the Middle East, operating in an area and understanding an area are two separate efforts. The Southern Hub is a key element of developing that understanding. The first steps in this development will be answering several questions: How will The Hub gather information? Where will this information come from? How will this information be analyzed? And finally, what do we do with the information after it is analyzed? The answers to these questions all revolve around one thing; relationships. The Hub will develop new relationships with International Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, and other non-NATO entities and strengthen established relationships with key stakeholders that already do great work in the focus areas.