TheNorth Atlantic Treaty du Traité de l\'Atlantique Nord;OTAN), also called theNorth Atlantic Alliance, is anintergovernmentalmilitary alliancebetween several North American and European states based on theNorth Atlantic Treatythat was signed on 4 April 1949.
NATO constitutes a system ofcollective defencewhereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. Three NATO members (theUnited States,Franceand theUnited Kingdom) arepermanent members of the United Nations Security Councilwiththe power to vetoand are officiallynuclear-weapon states. NATO Headquarters are located inHaren,Brussels,Belgium, while theheadquarters of Allied Command Operationsis nearMons, Belgium.
NATO is an alliance that consists of 29 independent member countries across North America and Europe. An additional 21countries participate in NATO\'sPartnership for Peaceprogram, with 15other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% ofthe global total.
Members\' defense spending is supposed to amount to at least 2% ofGDPby 2024.
NATO was little more than a political association until theKorean Wargalvanized the organization\'s member states, and an integrated military structure was built up under the direction of two US Supreme Commanders. The course of theCold Warled to a rivalry with nations of theWarsaw Pact, that formed in 1955. Doubts over the strength of the relationship between the European states and the United States ebbed and flowed, along with doubts over the credibility of the NATO defense against a prospectiveSovietinvasion—doubts that led to the development of theindependent French nuclear deterrentand the withdrawal ofFrancefrom NATO\'s military structure in 1966 for 30 years. After thefall of the Berlin Wallin Germany in 1989, the organization became involved in thebreakup of Yugoslavia, and conducted its first military interventions inBosnia from 1992 to 1995and laterYugoslavia in 1999. Politically, the organization sought better relations with former Warsaw Pact countries, several of which joined the alliance in 1999 and 2004.
Article5 of the North Atlantic treaty, requiring member states to come to the aid of any member state subject to an armed attack, was invoked for the first and only time after theSeptember 11 attacks,after which troops were deployed toAfghanistanunder the NATO-ledISAF. The organization has operated a range of additional roles since then, including sendingtrainers to Iraq, assisting incounter-piracy operationsand in 2011 enforcing ano-fly zoneover Libyain accordance withU.N. Security Council Resolution 1973. The less potent Article 4, which merely invokes consultation among NATO members, has been invoked five times: byTurkeyin 2003 over theIraq War; twice in 2012 by Turkey over theSyrian Civil War, after thedowningof an unarmed TurkishF-4 reconnaissance jet, and after a mortar was fired at Turkey fromSyria;in 2014 byPoland, following theRussian intervention in Crimea;and again by Turkey in 2015 after threats byIslamic State of Iraq and the Levantto its territorial integrity.
Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 29. The most recentmember state to be addedto NATO is Montenegro on 5 June 2017. NATO currently recognizesBosnia and Herzegovina,Georgia, andMacedoniaas aspiring members.
TheTreaty of Brusselswas a mutual defence treaty against the Soviet threat at the start of the Cold War. It was signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom. It was the precursor to NATO. The Soviet threat became immediate with theBerlin Blockadein 1948, leading to the creation of theWestern European Union\'s Defence Organization in September 1948.However, the parties were too weak militarily to counterthe military power of the USSR. In addition, the1948 Czechoslovak coup d\'étatby the Communists had overthrown a democratic government and British Foreign MinisterErnest Bevinreiterated that the best way to prevent another Czechoslovakia was to evolve a joint Western military strategy. He got a receptive hearing in the United States, especially considering American anxiety over Italy (and theItalian Communist Party).
In 1948, European leaders met with U.S. defense, military and diplomatic officials at the Pentagon, under U.S. Secretary of StateGeorge C. Marshall\'s orders, exploring a framework for a new and unprecedented association. Talks for a new military alliance resulted in theNorth Atlantic Treaty, which was signed by U.S. PresidentHarry S. Trumanin Washington, D.C. on 4 April 1949. It included the five Treaty of Brussels states plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.The firstNATO Secretary General,Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the organization\'s goal was \"to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down\".Popular support for the Treaty was not unanimous, and some Icelanders participated in apro-neutrality, anti-membership riotin March 1949. The creation of NATO can be seen as the primary institutional consequence of a school of thought calledAtlanticismwhich stressed the importance of trans-Atlantic cooperation.
The members agreed that an armed attack against any one of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. Consequently, they agreed that, if an armed attack occurred, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence, would assist the member being attacked, taking such action as it deemed necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. The treaty does not require members to respond with military action against an aggressor. Although obliged to respond, they maintain the freedom to choose the method by which they do so. This differs from ArticleIV of the Treaty of Brussels, which clearly states that the response will be military in nature. It is nonetheless assumed that NATO members will aid the attacked member militarily. The treaty was later clarified to include both the member\'s territory and their \"vessels, forces or aircraft\" above theTropic of Cancer, including someoverseas departmentsof France.
The creation of NATO brought about somestandardizationof alliedmilitary terminology, procedures, and technology, which in many cases meant European countries adopting US practices. The roughly 1300Standardization Agreements(STANAG) codified many of the common practices that NATO has achieved. Hence, the7.62×51mm NATOrifle cartridge was introduced in the 1950s as a standard firearm cartridge among many NATO countries.Fabrique Nationale de Herstal\'sFAL, which used the 7.62mm NATO cartridge, was adopted by 75 countries, including many outside of NATO.Also,aircraft marshalling signalswere standardized, so that any NATO aircraft could land at any NATO base. Other standards such as theNATO phonetic alphabethave made their way beyond NATO into civilian use.
The outbreak of theKorean Warin June 1950 was crucial for NATO as it raised the apparent threat of all Communist countries working together, and forced the alliance to develop concrete military plans.]Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe(SHAPE) was formed to direct forces in Europe, and began work under Supreme Allied CommanderDwight D. Eisenhowerin January 1951.In September 1950, theNATO Military Committeecalled for an ambitious buildup of conventional forces to meet the Soviets, subsequently reaffirming this position at the February 1952 meeting of theNorth Atlantic CouncilinLisbon. The Lisbon conference, seeking to provide the forces necessary for NATO\'s Long-Term Defence Plan, called for an expansion to ninety-sixdivisions. However this requirement was dropped the following year to roughly thirty-five divisions with heavier use to be made of nuclear weapons. At this time, NATO could call on about fifteen ready divisions in Central Europe, and another ten in Italy and Scandinavia.Also at Lisbon, the post ofSecretary General of NATOas the organization\'s chief civilian was created, andLord Ismaywas eventually appointed to the post.
The GermanBundeswehrprovided the largest element of the allied land forces guarding the frontier in Central Europe.
In September 1952, the first major NATOmaritime exercisesbegan;Exercise Mainbracebrought together 200 ships and over 50,000 personnel to practice the defence of Denmark and Norway.[28]Other major exercises that followed includedExercise Grand SlamandExercise Longstep, naval and amphibious exercises in theMediterranean Sea, Italic Weld, a combined air-naval-ground exercise innorthern Italy, Grand Repulse, involving theBritish Army on the Rhine(BAOR), the Netherlands Corps andAllied Air Forces Central Europe(AAFCE), Monte Carlo, a simulated atomic air-ground exercise involving theCentral Army Group, and Weldfast, a combined amphibious landing exercise in the Mediterranean Sea involving American, British, Greek, Italian and Turkish naval forces.
GreeceandTurkeyalso joined the alliance in 1952, forcing a series of controversial negotiations, in which the United States and Britain were the primary disputants, over how to bring the two countries into the military command structure.While this overt military preparation was going on, covertstay-behindarrangements initially made by the Western European Union to continue resistance after a successful Soviet invasion, includingOperationGladio, were transferred to NATO control. Ultimately unofficial bonds began to grow between NATO\'s armed forces, such as theNATO Tiger Associationand competitions such as theCanadian Army Trophyfor tank gunnery.
A 1952 U.S.postage stampcommemorating the third anniversary of NATO. Stamps honoring the organization were issued by many member countries.
In 1954, the Soviet Union suggested that it should join NATO to preserve peace in Europe.The NATO countries, fearing that the Soviet Union\'s motive was to weaken the alliance, ultimately rejected this proposal.
On 17 December 1954, the North Atlantic Council approved MC 48, a key document in the evolution of NATO nuclear thought. MC 48 emphasized that NATO would have to use atomic weapons from the outset of a war with the Soviet Union whether or not the Soviets chose to use them first. This gave SACEUR the same prerogatives for automatic use of nuclear weapons as existed for the commander-in-chief of the USStrategic Air Command.
The incorporation ofWest Germanyinto the organization on 9 May 1955 was described as \"a decisive turning point in the history of our continent\" byHalvard Lange,Foreign Affairs Minister of Norwayat the time.A major reason for Germany\'s entry into the alliance was that without German manpower, it would have been impossible to field enough conventional forces to resist a Soviet invasion.One of its immediate results was the creation of theWarsaw Pact, which was signed on 14 May 1955 by the Soviet Union, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and East Germany, as a formal response to this event, thereby delineating the two opposing sides of theCold War.
Three major exercises were held concurrently in the northern autumn of 1957. OperationCounter Punch,OperationStrikeback, andOperationDeep Waterwere the most ambitious military undertaking for the alliance to date, involving more than 250,000 men, 300 ships, and 1,500 aircraft operating from Norway to Turkey.
During most of the Cold War, NATO\'s watch against the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact did not actually lead to direct military action. On 1 July 1968, theTreaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weaponsopened for signature: NATO argued that itsnuclear sharingarrangements did not breach the treaty as US forces controlled the weapons until a decision was made to go to war, at which point the treaty would no longer be controlling. Few states knew of the NATO nuclear sharing arrangements at that time, and they were not challenged. In May 1978, NATO countries officially defined two complementary aims of the Alliance, to maintain security and pursue détente. This was supposed to mean matching defences at the level rendered necessary by the Warsaw Pact\'s offensive capabilities without spurring a furtherarms race.
During the Cold War, most of Europe was divided between two alliances. Members of NATO are shown in blue, with members of theWarsaw Pactin red, unaffiliated countries are in grey. Yugoslavia, although communist, hadleft the Soviet spherein 1948, while Albania was only a Warsaw Pact memberuntil 1968.
On 12 December 1979, in light of a build-up of Warsaw Pact nuclear capabilities in Europe, ministers approved the deployment of USGLCMcruise missilesandPershingIItheatre nuclear weapons in Europe. The new warheads were also meant to strengthen the western negotiating position regarding nuclear disarmament. This policy was called theDual Trackpolicy.Similarly, in 1983–84, responding to the stationing ofWarsaw PactSS-20medium-range missiles in Europe, NATO deployed modern Pershing II missiles tasked to hit military targets such as tank formations in the event of war. This action led topeace movementprotests throughout Western Europe, and support for the deployment wavered as many doubted whether the push for deployment could be sustained.
The membership of the organization at this time remained largely static. In 1974, as a consequence of theTurkish invasion of Cyprus, Greece withdrew its forces from NATO\'s military command structure but, with Turkish cooperation, were readmitted in 1980. TheFalklands Warbetween the United Kingdom andArgentinadid not result in NATO involvement because article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that collective self-defence is only applicable to attacks on member state territories north of theTropic of Cancer.On 30 May 1982, NATO gained a new member when the newly democratic Spain joined the alliance; Spain\'s membership was confirmed byreferendum in 1986. At the peak of the Cold War, 16 member nations maintained an approximate strength of 5,252,800 active military, including as many as 435,000 forward deployed US forces, under a command structure that reached a peak of 78 headquarters, organized into four echelons
