Lord Robertson and the self-defence clause

“Your mind starts to whirl, first of all with the shock, secondly with sympathy and thirdly with what we were going to do about it.” But Lord Robertson, NATO’s 10^th Secretary General, did not wait for answers to come to him once the second plane hit the Twin Towers. As an emergency meeting took place among NATO Ambassadors, work was already underway on how to react and one of the options was the invocation of Article 5 – NATO’s self-defence clause.

Early next morning, while speaking to US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, over the phone, Lord Robertson raised Article 5. He then defended the idea during a five and a half hour long meeting, followed by numerous phone calls to NATO capitals.

On the evening of 12 September 2001, NATO invoked the principle of Article 5 for the first time in its history.

In recognition for his services and his role during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the President of the United States, George Bush Junior, awarded Lord Robertson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.