We are pleased to invite you to an exclusive event – a public lecture by John Swords, the Legal Adviser and Director of NATO’s Office of Legal Affairs, on Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, followed by a brief Q&A session.
John Swords is the Legal Adviser and Director of NATO’s Office of Legal Affairs at its Headquarters in Brussels, a position he has held since 2020. In that General Counsel role he acts as the chief legal adviser to NATO’s Secretary General, NATO’s International Staff, and the North Atlantic Council, on which the 32 Allied nations sit.
John leads the multinational legal team at HQ, which provides legal advice on international, operational, institutional, and commercial matters across the headquarters. The team also helps develop policy, negotiates and drafts the alliance’s international treaties, coordinates accession processes, and litigates internally and externally. John leads on external engagement and chairs the Annual Meeting of Allied Legal Advisers, at which Allies’ most senior MFA & MOD lawyers discuss and coordinate on strategic legal questions pertaining to international defence and security.
Prior to joining NATO, Mr Swords worked in the United Kingdom’s Government Legal Department for 15 years. Mr Swords was called to the bar in 2002 and is a member of Gray’s Inn.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty enshrines the principle of collective defence, meaning an attack against one Ally is considered an attack against all Allies. NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in its history after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States. NATO has taken collective defence measures on several occasions, including in response to the situation in Syria and the Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Please register for the lecture here: