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| Stabilisation Force | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 20 December 1996 – 2 December 2004 |
| Country | 39 countries |
| Type | Command |
| Role | Peacekeeping |
| Part of |  NATO |
| Nickname(s) | "SFOR" |
The Stabilisation Force (SFOR) was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Bosnian War. Although SFOR was led by NATO, several non-NATO countries contributed troops. It was replaced by EUFOR Althea in December 2004.
The stated mission of SFOR was to "deter hostilities and stabilise the peace, contribute to a secure environment by providing a continued military presence in the Area Of Responsibility (AOR), target and co-ordinate SFOR support to key areas including primary civil implementation organisations, and progress towards a lasting consolidation of peace, without further need for NATO-led forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina". [1]
SFOR was established in Security Council Resolution 1088 on 12 December 1996. It succeeded the much larger Implementation Force IFOR which was deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina on 20 December 1995 with a one-year mandate. The commanders of the SFOR, who each served one-year terms, were General William W. Crouch, General Eric Shinseki, General Montgomery Meigs, Lt. General Ronald Adams, Lt. General Michael Dodson, Lt. General John B. Sylvester, Lt. General William E. Ward, Major General Virgil Packett and Brigadier General Steven P. Schook.
SFOR operated in support of NATO Operation Joint Guard and Operation Joint Forge.
Troop levels were reduced to approximately 12,000 by the close of 2002, and to approximately 7,000 by the close of 2004. During NATO's 2004 Istanbul Summit the end of the SFOR mission was announced.
It was replaced by the European Union's EUFOR Althea, on 2 December 2004 at NATO HQ, Camp Butmir, Sarajevo, B-H. Operation Joint Forge was succeeded by the EU's Operation Althea.
SFOR was divided into three zones of operation:
(Some units had troops stationed outside the assigned zone)
The three AOs were known collectively as Multi-National Divisions until the end of 2002 where they were reduced in scope to Multi-National Brigades.
SFOR operated under peace enforcement, not peacekeeping, rules of engagement. For example, it was cleared, in 1997, to neutralise Serb radio-television facilities. [2] During its mandate, SFOR arrested 29 individuals who were charged with war crimes. Those arrested were transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Netherlands.
U.S. service members serving in SFOR were awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and the NATO Medal.
SFOR operated as part of Operation Joint Guard and Operation Joint Forge. As time progressed, the numbers of troops allotted to SFOR declined. On 2 December 2004, SFOR disbanded and its functions were assumed by military units from the European Union organized as European Union Forces (EUFOR).
Several sequential air operations supported the stabilization efforts. [3]
SFOR participated in Operation Joint Guard (21 December 1996 – 19 June 1998) and Operation Joint Forge (20 June 1998 – 2 December 2004).
NATO nations providing troops included:
Non-NATO nations providing troops included:
The Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the official military force of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The BiH armed forces were officially unified in 2005 and are composed of two founding armies: the Bosniak and Croat Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (VFBiH) and the Bosnian Serbs' Army of Republika Srpska (VRS).
The Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic were divided from the Czechoslovak Army after dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1993. Slovakia joined NATO on 29 March 2004. From 2006 the army transformed into a fully professional organization and compulsory military service was abolished. Slovak armed forces numbered 19,500 uniformed personnel and 4,208 civilians in 2022.
The Implementation Force (IFOR) was a NATO-led multinational peace enforcement force in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a one-year mandate from 20 December 1995 to 20 December 1996 under the codename Operation Joint Endeavour.
Operation Althea, formally the European Union Force Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR), is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It is the successor to NATO's SFOR and IFOR. The transition from SFOR to EUFOR was largely a change of name and commanders: 80% of the troops remained in place. It replaced SFOR on 2 December 2004.
Operation Deliberate Force was a sustained air campaign conducted by NATO, in concert with the UNPROFOR ground operations, to undermine the military capability of the Army of Republika Srpska, which had threatened and attacked UN-designated "safe areas" in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War with the Srebrenica genocide and Markale massacres, precipitating the intervention. The shelling of the Sarajevo marketplace on 28 August 1995 by the VRS is considered to be the immediate instigating factor behind NATO's decision to launch the operation.
Operation Grapple was the codeword used to cover UK defence operations in support of the UN peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia ; including the deployment of British forces in Bosnia and Croatia from October 1992 until December 1995 as part of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR). UNPROFOR would eventually hand over the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia to NATO's Implementation Force (IFOR) in winter 1995. The British participation in the IFOR was called Operation Resolute; the whole NATO mission was called Operation Joint Endeavour. The IFOR mission would last approximately a year, before it transitioned to the follow-on Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR).
The Berlin Plus agreement is the short title of a comprehensive package of agreements made between NATO and the EU on 16 December 2002. These agreements were based on conclusions of NATO's 1999 Washington summit, sometimes referred to as the CJTF mechanism, and allowed the EU to draw on some of NATO's military assets in its own peacekeeping operations.
National Support Elements (NSE) were part of the IFOR, and later the SFOR, NATO led forces, which were deployed primarily in former Yugoslavia from 1996 to 2004. Many of the NSE's were deployed in Hungary - even though this country was neither part of the conflict, nor a NATO member at the time - because of the local stability, good infrastructure, access to local supply ordering and relatively short distance to the battalions in Bosnia.
The NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a series of actions undertaken by NATO whose stated aim was to establish long-term peace during and after the Bosnian War. NATO's intervention began as largely political and symbolic, but gradually expanded to include large-scale air operations and the deployment of approximately 60,000 soldiers of the Implementation Force.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1088, adopted unanimously on 12 December 1996, after recalling all resolutions on the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and in particular resolutions 1031 (1995) and 1035 (1995), the council, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, authorised the creation of the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina to replace the Implementation Force (IFOR).
United Nations Security Council resolution 1174, adopted unanimously on 15 June 1998, after recalling resolutions 1031 (1995), 1035 (1995), 1088 (1996), 1103 (1997), 1107 (1997), 1144 (1997) and 1168 (1998), the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) for a period terminating on 21 June 1999 and authorised states participating in the NATO led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) to continue to do so for a further twelve months.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1551, adopted unanimously on 9 July 2004, after recalling previous resolutions on the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, including resolutions 1031 (1995), 1088 (1996), 1423 (2002) and 1491 (2003), the council extended the mandate of the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina for a further period of six months and welcomed the deployment of EUFOR Althea at the end of the SFOR's mandate.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1575, adopted unanimously on 22 November 2004, after recalling previous resolutions on the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, including resolutions 1031 (1995), 1088 (1996), 1423 (2002), 1491 (2003) and 1551 (2004), the council defined the role of EUFOR Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a legal successor to the Stabilisation Force (SFOR).
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1948, adopted unanimously on November 18, 2010, after recalling previous resolutions on the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, including resolutions 1031 (1995), 1088 (1996), 1423 (2002), 1491 (2003), 1551 (2004), 1575 (2004), 1639 (2005), 1722 (2006), 1764 (2007), 1785 (2007), 1845 (2008), 1869 (2008) and 1895 (2009), the Council extended the mandate of EUFOR Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina for an additional year until November 18, 2011.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1639, adopted unanimously on 21 November 2005, after recalling previous resolutions on the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, including resolutions 1031 (1995), 1088 (1996), 1423 (2002), 1491 (2003), 1551 (2004) and 1575 (2004), the Council extended the mandate of EUFOR Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a legal successor to the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) for a further twelve months.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1722, adopted unanimously on November 21, 2006, after recalling previous resolutions on the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, including resolutions 1031 (1995), 1088 (1996), 1423 (2002), 1491 (2003), 1551 (2004), 1575 (2004) and 1639 (2005), the Council extended the mandate of EUFOR Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a legal successor to the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) for a further twelve months.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2019 was unanimously adopted on 16 November 2011, and approved the mandate of European force in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Multi-National Division (South-West) was a military formation which formed part of IFOR, a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a one-year mandate from 20 December 1995 to 20 December 1996, and then formed part of SFOR, another NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force, from 20 December 1996 until June 2004.
Multi-National Division (North) was an international military formation, part of IFOR and then SFOR under NATO command in Bosnia-Hercegovina from 1995. It was based at Tuzla and was American led. Its U.S. designation was Task Force Eagle.
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