What is NATO?

BACKGROUND

For more than 70 years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has provided for the collective defense of the U.S., Canada, and the European democracies and has arguably been the most successful military alliance in world history. Over the years, NATO has stood unified for the principles of democracy and freedom against the Soviet Union’s aggression during the Cold War, preserved stability after the collapse of the communist bloc, and successfully incorporated many Eastern European democracies into the fold. It remains a vital political and military partnership and is confronting new challenges, including a resurgent Russia and the rise of global terrorism.

OVERVIEW

NATO came about in the aftermath of World War II, as the Western European democracies that fought alongside the U.S. were struggling to rebuild their countries that had been ravaged by years of war and in some cases Nazi occupation. The descent of the communist Soviet Union’s “iron curtain” ― as British wartime leader Winston Churchill called it ― across Eastern Europe posed a major military threat to Western Europe’s newfound freedom.

In 1948, the “Marshall Plan” was implemented to provide the financial resources needed to rebuild Western Europe’s economic infrastructure. Meanwhile, negotiations between the U.S., United Kingdom, France, and several other nations occurred regarding an alliance to serve as the military equivalent of the Marshall Plan. Its necessity was underscored by the Soviet Union’s attempt to blockade Berlin in June 1948, a siege that was broken by the Berlin airlift.

In the spring of 1949, negotiators reached an agreement on what became the North Atlantic Treaty, which was ratified by the Senate and President Harry Truman in July 1949. The North Atlantic Treaty entered into force the next month with 12 founding members: the U.S., Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The preamble of the Treaty explained that its purpose was to “unite their efforts for collective defence and for the preservation of peace and security”, and added:

“They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law.”

The portion of the Treaty which provides for the collective defense ― known as Article V ― holds that an armed attack on a member in Europe or North America should be considered an attack on all. Each member would be required to take whatever action it deems necessary, individually and in concert with other allies, to restore and preserve the security of the North Atlantic area. For this reason, Article V is sometimes known as the “Three Musketeers” clause of the Treaty because it’s “all for one and one for all.”

Another key provision of the Treaty is Article III, which requires NATO allies to “maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack” through “self-help and mutual aid”. Additionally, Article X of the Treaty established a process by which NATO could unanimously agree to “invite any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area to accede to this Treaty.”

HOW HAS NATO EVOLVED & WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES IT HAS FACED?

In its first few years of existence, NATO didn’t have a well-defined military structure and functioned primarily as a political alliance. That changed after communist North Korea’s shock invasion of democratic South Korea in 1950, in which the North was supported by its ideological allies in China and the Soviet Union. NATO developed its military command structure to prevent a similar escalation of the Cold War in Europe, and the NATO alliance added West Germany, Greece, and Turkey to its ranks during the 1950s in response to the Soviet Union’s creation of the Warsaw Pact with its communist satellite nations.

Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. maintained a large troop presence in West Germany as a deterrent to Soviet aggression against West Berlin or elsewhere in Europe. At any given time, roughly 250,000 American servicemembers were stationed in West Germany, France hosted up to 50,000 U.S. troops at various times while tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers were also stationed in the United Kingdom. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, troop levels decreased ― although about 35,000 Americans remain stationed in reunified Germany.

NATO’s first joint military interventions came in Bosnia from 1992-1995 and during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in 1999. This period also saw the expansion of NATO, as former Warsaw Pact member nations joined their historical foes in the alliance, which has grown to 29 members at present.

Article V was invoked by NATO members for the first time in the alliance’s history after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. More than 1,000 troops from NATO member nations have been killed in action fighting alongside Americans in Afghanistan against al Qaeda & the Taliban.

More recently, NATO provided training assistance to Iraqi security forces after dictator Saddam Hussein was removed from power, imposed a no-fly zone and carried out strikes against the military of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and carried out an anti-piracy campaign in the Gulf of Aden.

At a 2014 NATO summit, allies pledged to spend at least 2% of their nation’s GDP on defense to improve NATO’s interoperability by 2024, after some members struggled to sustain military operations in Afghanistan and Libya. At the time only the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Greece met that goal but they were joined by Poland, Estonia, Romania, Lithuania, and Latvia in exceeding the 2% threshold for 2018. Based on current projections, 23 of the 29 current NATO members are expected to hit the target by 2024.

It also appears that the alliance will continue to grow in the future. North Macedonia will be the next nation to join NATO, with all 29 current NATO members providing approval of its membership as of March 2020. There have been discussions about future membership with the governments of Ukraine and the Republic of Georgia ― two countries which experienced Russian aggression in the post-Soviet era firsthand ― plus Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other potential future members include NATO partners Finland and Sweden, which have seen public opinion trend toward membership since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and regularly participate in defense exercises with NATO despite their historic neutrality.

Russia continues to view NATO as a threat to its ability to influence European nations and has sought to undermine the alliance, recently creating a rift between Turkey and the other NATO after it sold the Turkish military the Russian S-400 missile system. Because of concerns raised by the U.S. and other NATO members involved in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program about Russia’s ability to compromise the F-35’s stealth capabilities through Turkey’s use of the S-400, Turkey was expelled from continuing to participate in the F-35 program and threatened with sanctions by Congress.

NATO is also broadening the military alliance to include cyberspace: beginning in 2023 NATO will have a fully operational cyber warfare command center.

WHAT DO SUPPORTERS OF NATO SAY?

NATO has been the most successful military alliance in history. Its members’ commitment to collective defense helped defeat the Soviet Union through deterrence without the Cold War turning hot. In the present day, the NATO alliance not only deters Russian aggression but also fights terrorism around the world.

WHAT DO OPPONENTS OF NATO SAY?

The NATO alliance is a relic of the Cold War, and isn’t structured to effectively counter Russian aggression or fight terrorism. Too many of its members don’t do enough to financially support their militaries and in turn the alliance’s collective defense, which results in a few members (including the U.S.) having to shoulder the burden.

RESOURCES

• NATO - North Atlantic Treaty
• Countable - NATO History

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / nzphotonz)