Description:
NATO answered a call for assistance from the African Union (AU) in their<br />AMIS mission in the Darfur region of Sudan in April 2005, providing airlift and<br />training in conjunction with the European Union until the end of the mission in<br />December 2007. This was the first time that NATO entertained a task on the African<br />continent. NATO undertook the mission on humanitarian grounds without invoking<br />any treaty and without any member state’s security being under any direct threat.<br />This was a milestone in NATO’s history, and it provides a case to understanding<br />regional alliances, regionalism and the development of trans-regionalism.