Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the central command of NATO military forces. It is located at Casteau north of the Belgian city of Mons.

Initially SHAPE was headquarters of operational forces in the European theatre (Allied Command Europe, ACE), but from 2003 SHAPE is the headquarters of Allied Command Operations (ACO) controlling all allied operations worldwide. The former Allied Command Atlantic (ACLANT) headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia was simultaneously converted into headquarters for the new Allied Command Transformation (ACT) responsible for transformation and training of NATO forces. SHAPE retained its traditional name with reference to Europe although the geographical scope of its activities were extended in 2003. The commanding officer of Allied Command Operations has also retained the title "Supreme Allied Commander Europe" (SACEUR), and continues to be a U.S. four star general with the dual-hatted role of Commander, U.S. European Command.

The main (political) headquarters of NATO is located in the Evere area of the Brussels-Capital Region about 80 km (50 miles) from SHAPE.

Contents

1 Structure 2 Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) 3 History 4 See also 5 External links

Structure

Allied Command Operations (ACO) is one of the two supreme commands of NATO (the other being Allied Command Transformation, ACT).

There are three main headquarters under Allied Command Operations:

• Joint Force Command HQ Brunssum, in Brunssum, the Netherlands
• Joint Force Command HQ Naples, in Naples, Italy
• Joint Headquarters Lisbon, in Lisbon, Portugal

Allied Command Operations is also responsible for six "Rapidly Deployable Corps Headquarters":

• Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) HQ, in Rheindalen, Germany
• Eurocorps HQ, in Strasbourg, France
• Rapid Deployable Italian Corps, in Milan, Italy
• Rapid Deployable Turkish Corps HQ, in Istanbul, Turkey
• Rapid Deployable German-Netherlands Corps HQ, in Münster, Germany
• Rapid Deployable Spanish Corps HQ, in Valencia, Spain

In addition to this Allied Command Operations has at its disposal standing forces such as:

• The Reaction Forces (Air) Staff - RF(A)S, in Kalkar, Germany
• NATO Airborne Early Warning Force (NAEWF)
• Immediate Reaction Forces (Maritime)
• ACE Mobile Force (AMF), in Heidelberg, Germany
• Standing NRF Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1)
• Standing NRF Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2)
• Standing NRF Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1)
• Standing NRF Mine Countermeasures Group 2 (SNMCMG2)

Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR)

The position as head of Allied Command Europe, since 2003 head of Allied Command Operations has been held by the following:

1. General Dwight D. Eisenhower (U.S. Army): April 2, 1951, to May 30, 1952
2. General Matthew Ridgway (U.S. Army): May 30, 1952, to July 11, 1953
3. General Alfred Gruenther (U.S. Army): July 1, 1953, to November 20, 1956
4. General Lauris Norstad (U.S. Air Force): November 20, 1956, to January 1, 1963
5. General Lyman Lemnitzer (U.S. Army): January 1, 1963, to July 1, 1969
6. General Andrew Goodpaster (U.S. Army): July 1, 1969, to December 15, 1974
7. General Alexander Haig (U.S. Army): December 15, 1974, to July 1, 1979
8. General Bernard Rogers (U.S. Army): July 1, 1979, to June 26, 1987
9. General John Galvin (U.S. Army): June 26, 1987, to June 23, 1992
10. General John Shalikashvili (U.S. Army): June 23, 1992, to October 22, 1993
11. General George Joulwan (U.S. Army): October 22, 1993, to July 11, 1997
12. General Wesley Clark (U.S. Army): July 11, 1997, to May 3, 2000
13. General Joseph Ralston (U.S. Air Force): May 3, 2000, to January 17, 2003
14. General James L. Jones (U.S. Marine Corps): January 17, 2003, to present

Note: Starting with Ridgway, all SACEUR have also simultaneously been CINCEUR.

History

From 1951-1967 it was situated in France, at Rocquencourt, west of Paris. Following the withdrawal of France from NATO's military command, it was relocated to Mons in Belgium.

One of the most significant events in the history of Allied Command Europe (ACE) was France’s withdrawal from NATO’s integrated military structure. This move forced SHAPE and several other ACE headquarters to leave French territory.

In an eerie reflection of 21st century politics, the divisiveness between France and NATO’s military structure had been brewing for a number of years, as successive French governments had become increasingly incensed with what they perceived to be Anglo-American domination of the command structure and insufficient French influence throughout the command.

In December 1965, French President Charles de Gaulle had just been elected for the second time and France had acquired its own nuclear capability. De Gaulle's efforts to establish a Franco-British–American Security Directorate and gain some French influence over US nuclear weapons based in France had failed, and he hoped to gain a more independent role for France in order to maximise its future global influence and status.

President de Gaulle also disagreed with the United States’ intention to replace the strategy of the so-called Massive Retaliation with Flexible Response because he believed that this meant a weakening of the US commitment to defend Europe with nuclear weapons.

As he became increasingly critical of the developments in NATO, de Gaulle described the military integration practised at SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters as obsolete and said that it was designed to ensure French subordination to US policy.

In February 1966 President de Gaulle stated that the changed world order had "stripped NATO of its justification" for military integration and that France was therefore justified in re-asserting her sovereignty over French territory.

Consequently, all allied forces within France’s borders would have to come under French control by April 1969. Soon afterward, France stated that it was withdrawing from the headquarters of Allied Command Europe and that SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) must leave French territory by April 1967.

The allies were unsuccessful in their efforts to persuade the French government to reconsider, and France then withdrew the vast majority of its military personnel from NATO military headquarters in July 1966.

The other Allies moved quickly to find new hosts for the headquarters that would have to leave France, and they decided to move NATO’s political headquarters from French territory as well.

The Netherlands was selected to host AFCENT, and Belgium became the host nation for both NATO and SHAPE. SACEUR Lemnitzer had hoped that SHAPE could be located near to NATO Headquarters, as had been the case in Paris, but the Belgian authorities decided that SHAPE should be located at least 50 kilometres from Brussels, NATO’s new location, because SHAPE was a major wartime military target.

They also said that SHAPE had to be placed on land already owned by the government in order to limit costs and construction time. The Belgian government then offered Camp Casteau, a 2 km&sup2 Belgian Army summer training camp near Mons, which was an area in serious need of additional economic investment.

To overcome SHAPE’s objections about the distance from Brussels, the Belgian government agreed to build a high-speed motorway connecting Mons and Brussels. In September 1966 NATO agreed that Belgium should host SHAPE at Casteau.

Six and a half months remained before the French deadline for SHAPE to leave France would expire. A massive seven-day-a-week building programme began, co-ordinated between the Belgian central and local authorities, the building consortium and SHAPE. Highest priority was given to building command and control facilities.

SHAPE closed its facility at Rocquencourt near Paris on 30 March 1967, and the next day held a ceremony to mark the opening of the new headquarters at Casteau. SACEUR Lemnitzer called the construction effort "a miracle of achievement" and praised the Belgian authorities and workmen for their efforts to ensure that SHAPE had a new headquarters in a remarkably short time.

The headquarters' new home in Mons, Belgium, was the center of international attention from time to time as new Supreme Allied Commanders came and went, with one of the more notable being General Alexander M. Haig, Jr. Haig, who had retired from military service in order to serve as White House Chief of Staff for President Richard M. Nixon during the depths of the Watergate crisis, was abruptly installed as SACEUR after Watergate's denouement. General Andrew Goodpaster, the current SACEUR, was furious as he was compelled to retire early. Haig's successor, General Bernard Rogers, became somewhat of an institution in Europe as the former U.S. Army chief of staff occupied the office for nearly eight years; a brief outcry arose from the other NATO capitals when Rogers was slated for retirement by the U.S. administration in 1987. An early retirement would once again disrupt the Mons headquarters in 2000 as General Wesley Clark was shunted aside in favor of Air Force general Joseph Ralston. Although the move was publicly characterized as a purely administrative move necessitated by Clark's approaching retirement and the lack of an open four-star slot for the highly respected Ralston [a reality which would have compelled him to either accept a temporary demotion to two-star rank or retire from the service], Clark's relief--leaked to the press before he was personally informed--was plainly intended as a slap at the general on the part of a Pentagon leadership that had been very much at odds with the SACEUR during the Kosovo war the previous spring.

See also

• Supreme Allied Commander

External links

• NATO main website (http://www.nato.int/)
• SHAPE website (http://www.nato.int/shape/)
• original SHAPE relocation article (http://www.nato.int/shape/news/2003/history/h030722.htm)

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