STANAG 2565 psychological guide for leaders across the deployment cycle

What it is

STANAG 2565 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering "A psychological guide for leaders across the deployment cycle." It was promulgated 19 March 2026 and supersedes "STANAG 2565, Edition 2, dated 31 October 2019" - the cover notes the document "has been updated from previous edition released in 2019." STANAG 2565 is available free of charge from NATO's Standardization Documents Database, which is also the authoritative record of which nations have ratified it and how they have implemented it.

A cover for AMedP-8.10, not the guide itself

A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical or subject-matter content itself. STANAG 2565's own text is short and administrative: an aim, an agreement, and the ratification, implementation and review machinery. The guide's actual content sits in a separate publication, AMedP-8.10, Edition B, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement." Anyone looking for the guide's own guidance needs AMedP-8.10's own text, not this cover agreement.

What the covered guide addresses

The stated aim is "to produce a series of guidelines for psychological support in military operations, in the form of a Military Leaders Guide to help standardise practice," grounded in "a common understanding among both leaders and mental health professionals of the importance of psychological readiness and support." The cover names seven areas nations should weigh when disseminating the guide - leaders' role in psychological readiness, what unit members and leaders expect, individual psychological fitness, morale and unit effectiveness, military family readiness, mitigating stress reactions, and working with mental health professionals - without elaborating on any of them here. The guide itself "took a general approach in order to be as relevant to leaders from as many nations as possible," and the cover directs specific questions to "their own mental health professionals in their own nation." That detail, and the guide's substance generally, lives in AMedP-8.10, which has its own record.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 2565 binds nations, not suppliers. It is effective "upon receipt for use by the participating nations and NATO bodies," and it becomes binding on a given nation through ratification, "as reflected in the NATO Standardization Documents Database (NSDD)." Dissemination is a further step: nations "agree to review the document and consider disseminating the information to their military leaders." Partner nations are only "invited to provide their implementation details through the electronic reporting tool" rather than bound by the agreement. Ratification and implementation details, for both, go through "the electronic reporting tool (e-Reporting)" and are recorded in the NSDD. Nothing in the document sets an obligation reaching a supplier or a company directly.

How it's evaluated

STANAG 2565 describes no certification scheme and no audit of a supplier, a company or a product. What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO: "National responses are recorded in the NATO Standardization Documents Database (NSDD)." The document never uses the word "certified" or "certification." The STANAG itself "is to be reviewed in accordance with AAP-03," with the result "recorded within the NSDD," and it is supervised under NATO's medical standardization structure: COMEDS, MCMedSB, MedStd, MHC and MMH P.

Standards it references

STANAG 2565 covers AMedP-8.10, the Allied Medical Publication that carries the guide's actual content, and the only standard the document names ("OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS None."). Its review clause references AAP-03: "This STANAG is to be reviewed in accordance with AAP-03."