The North Atlantic Treaty, NATO’s founding document, makes no mention of nuclear weapons. NATO’s strategic concept defines the use of nuclear weapons for Alliance defense purposes. The strategic concept is a policy document that in the past was rewritten by the member states roughly every ten years. In addition, NATO summit declarations describe partial changes in between. In February 2021, the NATO Secretary General proposed that NATO adopt a new strategic concept at the 2022 summit.
Currently, NATO assesses the likelihood of nuclear weapons use as very low. For deterrence, NATO relies on the strategic weapons of the US, the UK, and France, as well as so-called nonstrategic weapons stationed in other NATO countries – such as the bombs in Italy.
Shortly after the first deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe, NATO countries demanded a say in nuclear weapons deployment planning. This gave rise to the Nuclear Planning Group (NPG), which discusses and reviews NATO’s nuclear weapons policy principles. All NATO members except France participate in the deliberations, usually at the level of defense ministers. Results of NPG meetings were published in final documents up until 2007. There has been no official reporting since then. The High Level Group and the NPG Staff Group are bodies where meetings are prepared at a lower level.
NATO’s strategic concepts have been public documents since 1991. They are always supplemented by secret documents explaining the military implementation of the political objectives. The NATO Military Committee prepares and adopts these documents. The latest such document (presumed document number: MC 400/4) was adopted in 2019 as a new “military strategy”. NATO had not had such a military strategy for over five decades.
The following FAQ is a compilation of a number of further questions about nuclear planning. The questions are taken from formal Bundestag inquiries, and the answers stem from the respective replies by the federal government.