In this lesson, we will learn about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a significant defense agreement in the world. We will talk in brief about its history, membership, purpose, and structure.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance of 30 countries bordering the North Atlantic Ocean. The Alliance includes the United States, most European Union members, Canada, and Turkey. It is also known as the North Atlantic Alliance, the Atlantic Alliance, and the Western Alliance.
It was established by the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed in Washington D.C. on April 4, 1949. Its headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium. It was formed in 1949 as a defense against the Soviet Union and its eastern European allies. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO changed its membership and its goals.
Below is an illustration of the NATO logo
Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30.
After World War II (1939-45), the Communist government of the Soviet Union set up other Communist governments in several countries of eastern Europe.
The countries of western Europe began to fear that the Soviets would spread communism even further. The United States and other Western countries shared their concern. This tension between the Soviet Union and Western countries became known as the Cold War.
Below is a picture of U.S. President Harry S. Truman signing the document that made the United States a NATO member in 1949. Leaders of Congress stand behind him at the signing ceremony.
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)
To protect each other against the Soviets, 12 countries formed NATO in 1949. The original NATO members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They were joined by Greece and Turkey in 1952, West Germany in 1955 (replaced by a united Germany in 1990), and Spain in 1982.
In response to NATO, the Soviet Union and its Communist allies formed Warsaw Pact in 1955. This was an organization similar to NATO. Both organizations were opposing sides in the Cold War.
In the early 1990s the Soviet Union broke up and the Warsaw Pact ended. The Cold War was over. Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic—all former members of the Warsaw Pact—joined NATO in 1999. Seven more countries - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia - that had been Communist joined NATO in 2004
Albania and Croatia became NATO members in 2009.
Montenegro joined the alliance in 2017, bringing the number of members to 29.
North Macedonia (Macedonia until February 2019) joined NATO on March 2020 becoming its 30th member.
Ireland officially joined NATO on 8th September 2020 as an observer.
NATO’s fundamental goal is to safeguard the Allies’ freedom and security by political and military means. NATO remains the principal security instrument of the transatlantic community and expression of its common democratic values. It is the practical means through which the security of North America and Europe are permanently tied together.
Article 5 of the Washington Treaty - that an attack against one Ally is an attack against all - is at the core of the Alliance, a promise of collective defense.
Article 4 of the treaty ensures consultations among Allies on security matters of common interest, which have expanded from a narrowly defined Soviet threat to the critical mission in Afghanistan, as well as peacekeeping in Kosovo and new threats to security such as cyber attacks, and global threats such as terrorism and piracy that affect the Alliance and its global network of partners.
Structure
NATO is comprised of two main parts: civilian and military.
The civilian structure
The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the body with effective governance authority and powers of decision in NATO. Each NATO member state is represented at the North Atlantic Council (NAC) by a nationally appointed Permanent Representative or Ambassador. The NAC convenes at least once a week and takes major decisions regarding NATO's policies. The meetings of the NAC are chaired by the Secretary-General and, when decisions have to be made, the action is agreed upon on the basis of unanimity and common accord. There is no voting or decision by the majority. The North Atlantic Council is the only institutional body specifically outlined by the Washington Treaty; under the direction of the Secretary-General, the NAC has the authority to establish additional subsidiary bodies (generally committees) in order to most effectively implement the principles of the NATO treaty.
NATO Headquarters, located in Brussels, is where representatives from all the member states come together to make decisions on a consensus basis. It also offers a venue for dialogue and cooperation between partner countries and NATO member countries, enabling them to work together in their efforts to bring about peace and stability. The staff at the Headquarters is composed of national delegations of member countries and includes civilian and military liaison offices and officers or diplomatic missions and diplomats of partner countries, as well as the international staff and international military staff filled from serving members of the armed forces of armed states. Non-governmental citizens' groups have also grown up in support of NATO, broadly under the banner of the Atlantic Council/Atlantic Treaty Association movement.
The military structure
The key elements of NATO’s military organization are:
The Military Committee (MC) advises the NAC on military policy and strategy. The national Chiefs of Defence are regularly represented in the MC by their permanent Military Representatives (MilRep), who often are two or three-star flag officers. Like the council, the MC also meets at a higher level, namely at the level of Chiefs of Defense, the most senior military officer in each nation's armed forces. The MC is led by its chairman who directs NATO's military operations. Until 2008, the MC excluded France, due to the country's 1966 decision to remove itself from the NATO Military Command Structure, which it rejoined in 1995. Until France rejoined NATO, it was not represented on the Defense Planning Committee, and this led to conflicts between it and NATO members. The operational work of the committee is supported by the International Military Staff.
Allied Command Operations (ACO) is the NATO command responsible for NATO operations worldwide. The Rapid Deployable Corps include Eurocorps, German/Dutch Corps, Multinational Corps Northeast, and NATO Rapid Deployable Italian Corps among others, as well as naval High Readiness Forces (HRFs), which all report to Allied Command Operations.
Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is responsible for the transformation and training of NATO forces.
