In August 1995 , a two-week NATO bombing campaign , Operation '' Deliberate Force '' , began against the Army of the Republika Srpska , after the Srebrenica massacre . Further NATO air strikes helped bring the Yugoslav wars to an end , resulting in the Dayton Agreement in November 1995 . As part of this agreement , NATO deployed a UN-mandated peacekeeping force , under Operation '' Joint Endeavor '' , named IFOR . Almost 60,000 NATO troops were joined by forces from non-NATO nations in this peacekeeping mission . This transitioned into the smaller SFOR , which started with 32,000 troops initially and ran from December 1996 until December 2004 , when operations were then passed onto European Union Force Althea . Following the lead of its member nations , NATO began to award a service medal , the NATO Medal , for these operations
Srebrenica massacre
Srebrenica massacre
NATO