In August 2003, NATO took over command and coordination of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, and in doing so commenced its first truly international task outside its former Euro-Atlantic area. In Afghanistan, NATO’s role, through the leadership of the 31,000 strong ISAF, is to conduct patrols in Kabul, coordinate Civil Military Cooperation projects and to work closely with United Nations organisations and the Afghan authorities to prevent Afghanistan falling into the hands of the warlords and becoming a failed state. Some 37 NATO nations participate in these tasks. Having transformed itself, since the end of the Cold War, from a purely western military alliance that was originally designed to counter the former Soviet Union (Russia) and its Warsaw Pact allies, into an international military force able to work on behalf of the United Nations, NATO is now providing stability beyond the borders of its members.