The authors of this Perspective review the new security challenges NATO faces and discuss current efforts by NATO to consider and adapt its structure, forces, systems, and processes to prepare itself for integrating cyberspace as an operational domain.

“NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT) requested the RAND Corporation’s assistance to provide analysis that would inform domain implementation through the execution of the roadmap tasks, focusing on identifying lessons learned from national practice; to conduct analysis and engagement to develop, refine, and improve material to inform NATO decisionmaking; and to provide an independent, objective view on  approaches to implement the roadmap.

This Perspective leverages insights from that focused analytic effort; additional research in such open-source literature as official government documents; and interviews with current and former officials and cybersecurity practitioners to provide additional commentary, which we hope is suitable for a wider audience. In particular, we discuss three viewpoints relevant to this endeavor upon which NATO is embarking by focusing on NATO’s past, present, and its emerging position in cyberspace”

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Source: Operationalizing Cyberspace as a Military Domain: Lessons for NATO | RAND