[1] United States officials have urged NATO countries to eliminate caveats, and some steps have been taken to lift them, but the problem appears to remain.
While the Riga summit relaxed some of these caveats to allow assistance to allies in dire circumstances, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, and the US are doing most of the fighting in southern Afghanistan, while French, German, and Italian troops are deployed in the quieter north.
It has expanded its global role, demonstrated that it can conduct a sustained out of area mission, NATO can operate with coalition partners from around the world, it has endurance (now ten years in Afghanistan, and counting) and that it is not easily intimidated.
According to an article written by Major General Rick Lynch and Lieutenant Colonel Phillip D. Janzen, US Army,[7] "National caveats on personnel participating in NATO-led operations are not a new challenge.
Nations contributing personnel to the NATO Training Mission - Iraq (NTM-I) also apply operational caveats to their force offerings, to include restrictions on the place of duty and length of deployment.
Operational impacts from caveats are countless but include restricting force protection troops from securing vehicle convoys.