Implementation Force

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The Implementation Force, or IFOR for short, designated the NATO-commanded multilateral peacekeeping force that replaced UNPROFOR in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 20 December 1995 and began operations under Operation Joint Endeavour. On December 21, 1995, the NATO air operation Deny Flight, which has existed since April 1993, was discontinued. You followed on the 9. January 1996 also the cessation of the airlift to Sarajevo, which had existed since July 1992, as part of Operation Provide Promise.

History

The foundation was preceded by difficult negotiations, which only took place after massive international pressure on the 21st. November 1995 in Dayton, Ohio, led to an agreement between the parties to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. IFOR should implement the military aspects of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

After the United Nations Security Council defined and established IFOR in Resolution 1031 on 15 December 1995, NATO was tasked with overseeing the ceasefire agreements and disengagement. This first NATO deployment, outside the previous role as a collective defence alliance, involved 16 NATO and 17 non-NATO countries, including 14 countries under the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme, including Russia and Ukraine. Since the end of the Second World War, this was also the first joint military operation between the “superpowers” of the United States and Russia.

On 18 May 1996, the IFOR operation was extended by the NATO Council and also extended to support for reconstruction.

UN Resolution 1088 of 12 December 1996 transferred the mandate of IFOR to the successor mission SFOR.

Scope and deployment

The target strength of IFOR was around 57,000 soldiers, of which the US made up around 20,000, the UK 13,000 and France 7,500 soldiers. The NATO command of IFOR was politically subordinate to the North Atlantic Council and militarily to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and its Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) General George A. Joulwan (USA). SACEUR in turn commissioned the Commander-in-Chief (CINCSOUTH) of the Operational Command of Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH) in Naples to lead the Implementation Force (IFOR) with headquarters in Sarajevo.
On 7 November 1996, the IFOR leadership moved from the NATO command area AFSOUTH to the Land Forces Central Europe (LANDCENT), which belonged to the Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) with headquarters in Brunssum (Netherlands).

IFOR was again divided into three command areas:
Allied Naval Forces South (NAVSOUTH), the naval force in command of Allied Forces South Europe (AFSOUTH) under command of Commander Allied Naval Forces South (COMNAVSOUTH)
Land Component Command including Corps Headquarters Allied Command Eu