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Home : Doctrine : Joint Allied Doctrine Program
Allied Joint Doctrine Program

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the primary office of responsibility for the management of the Department of Defense (DoD) support to North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO's) joint doctrine development, also known as Allied joint doctrine development.  Its purpose is to improve interoperability with NATO countries through the standardization of joint doctrine and its military terminology.  When drafting policy, strategy, plans, or other material, United States (US) authors must always be cognizant to compare NATO content to and recognize deviations from US joint doctrine and standardized terminology and be aware of those deviations while following US joint doctrine practices.


Strategic Policy Documents

The US actively participates in developing Allied joint doctrine and assists in NATO Level 1 and 2 Allied joint doctrine publication development. CJCSI 5120 Series and CJCSM 5120 Series establishes the US joint doctrine development system and describes formal procedures for joint doctrine development to include support to NATO’s Allied joint doctrine publication development and NATO’s Military Committee Terminology Board. The US also supports NATO’s Allied Joint Doctrine Working Group (AJODWG) and Military Committee Terminology Board (MCTB) by agreeing to abide by certain policies and procedures in the following references.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction 5120.01 - establishes policy and a system to develop joint doctrine for the employment of the US Armed Forces.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Manual 5120.02 - establishes policy and procedures to develop joint doctrine for the employment of the US Armed Forces and for support to NATO joint doctrine development.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Manual 2700.01 - establishes policy, procedures, and responsibilities for conducting rationalization, standardization, and interoperability activities with allies and other multinational partners that includes NATO AJODWG and MCTB support.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction 5705.01 - establishes policy and procedures for implementing the DoD Terminology program that includes NATO MCTB support.


Allied Joint Doctrine Architecture

NATO’s Allied Joint Doctrine is organized within an Allied Joint Doctrine Publication architecture based on a traditional joint staff functional alignment. The US Allied Joint Doctrine Program Manager within Joint Staff J-7 is responsible for the oversight, staffing, and ratification of Level 1 (capstone/keystone) and 2 (next level of subordinate tiered specific functional operational level area) Allied publications known specifically as Allied Joint Publications (AJP). Level 3 lower-level allied publications, that number in over seventy other categories, such as Allied tactical publications, Allied logistics publications, and Allied intelligence publications are staffed by Service representatives or subject matter expert associated NATO board members. US joint doctrine is to be used as the initial basis for the inputs to Allied joint doctrine.

NATO Standardization Office Public Web Site https://nso.nato.int/nso/SOSite/default.html

NATO Standardization Office Current List of Publications https://nso.nato.int/nso/nsdd/listpromulg.html


NATO Terminology

NATO Term - contains joint doctrine non-classified military terminology, as well as non-military policy terminology relevant to NATO. (The US does not combine doctrine and policy terms and definitions in its joint doctrine glossaries.)