STANAG 2590 joint doctrine for stabilization operations

What it is

STANAG 2590 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering AJP-3.28, the Allied joint doctrine for the military contribution to stabilization operations. This is Edition 2, promulgated 25 January 2023, superseding Edition 1 of 14 December 2015.

A STANAG is not the doctrine

A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical or operational specification itself. STANAG 2590's own text is short and administrative: an aim, one interoperability requirement, the ratification and implementation machinery, and nothing else. The planning and execution detail the doctrine actually sets out lives in a separate publication, AJP-3.28, Edition A, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement". Anyone looking for that operational content needs AJP-3.28 itself, not this cover agreement.

What it commits nations to

The stated aim is interoperability. The interoperability requirement reads: "To provide NATO/Coalition forces with a common doctrine for the planning and execution of stabilization operations in support of a host nation's government." Under the agreement clause, participating nations commit to a single named standard, AJP-3.28, Edition A. No other related document is listed, and this edition supersedes STANAG 2590, Edition 1, dated 14 December 2015.

Ratification and implementation are separate steps

STANAG 2590 binds a nation only once that nation ratifies it, and ratification and implementation are tracked as two distinct steps, both recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD). Nations are invited to examine their ratification and advise the NATO Standardization Office of their ratification and implementation intentions. Implementation is defined concretely: AJP-3.28 being included into national doctrine, promulgated nationally, included in national education and training programmes, and used by the personnel and units that would operate in NATO operations or exercises. Allied nations and NATO bodies are then obliged to report implementation details through NATO's electronic reporting tool; partner nations are only invited to do the same. No NATO Effective Date applies to this edition, so there is no Alliance-wide deadline attached to either step.

How it's evaluated

STANAG 2590 describes no certification scheme and no audit. What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO for the record, and periodic review of the STANAG itself under AAP-03, with the result recorded in the NSDD. Nobody is "STANAG 2590 certified", and the document never uses that language. It says nothing about how conformity with AJP-3.28's own doctrine is checked in practice - that is a matter for whatever contract or tasking brings the doctrine into scope.

Standards it references

STANAG 2590 covers AJP-3.28, the Allied joint doctrine that carries the actual planning and execution content. Its own periodic review runs under AAP-03, which the STANAG names as the procedure its review follows, not as a source of technical content.