HOST NATION SUPPORT AND CIVIL - MILITARY INFRASTRUCTURE COOPERATION IN NATO OPERATIONS

Abstract

The evolving security landscape in Europe, characterised by renewed conventional military threats along NATO’s Eastern Flank, has placed unprecedented demands on Host Nation Support (HNS) frameworks and the infrastructure systems that underpin them. This paper examines the intersection of civil engineering capabilities and military operational requirements within the context of NATO collective defence, arguing that effective HNS depends not merely on legal and political agreements between Allied nations, but critically on the physical capacity and technical readiness of civilian infrastructure to support large-scale force projection and sustainment. The paper further explores best practices in civil-military engineering cooperation drawn from Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states, identifying governance models and institutional mechanisms through which defence engineering requirements can be systematically embedded into national infrastructure planning cycles. The findings suggest that bridging the gap between civilian engineering standards and NATO operational thresholds necessitates a formalised, multi-stakeholder framework integrating military engineers, national infrastructure agencies, and Allied planners at both the strategic and technical levels.