NATO Linguistic Services 1949–1994

Abstract

In order to fully understand the way in which any language policy is formulated, it is necessary to consider the wider context in which decisions are made about language use. NATO’s language policy has developed in line with the needs of the organization and can be traced from the adoption of the two official languages of English and French to the final promulgation of a doctrine on linguistic support for operations in 2011. This chapter looks at the way in which the provision of linguistic services was organized at headquarters level in the first phase of NATO’s development, from its establishment to the end of the Cold War. In this phase, the provision of interpretation and translation was largely focused on the need to facilitate internal communication in the two official languages. It is only at the end of this period, as the external political situation changes, that we see the emerging need for NATO to also have translation and interpretation capability in other languages.