Difference between revisions of "North Atlantic Treaty Organization"

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Revision as of 13:07, June 17, 2010

File:NATO1.gif
NATO committee.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an military alliance of 26 nations, founded in 1949. Its current secretary is Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands.

History

Beginning

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established shortly after World War II in 1949. The original members consisted of ten Western European countries, the United States, and Canada. These countries formed the alliance to further the goal of security in the North Atlantic region, they did this by ingraining the principal that an attack against one member would be considered an attack against all, and thus, all would respond with support to the attacked nation. In 1952 NATO began its first round of enlargement of the early alliances history, letting in Turkey.

Cold War

NATO acceptance of Western European countries in 1955 led Soviet Russia to set up a counter organization, The Warsaw Treaty Organization (or Warsaw Pact). Common defense, the ongoing MAD strategy, and economic crisis led the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact to its demise. NATO’s transatlantic relations and prevention were key to the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a interlinking of United States and European policies, which still remains to this day.

Kosovo

After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. NATO had seemed to lose it purpose as it no longer had the threat of USSR. NATO began to shift its focus to from its original defense alliance to a more offensive mode. In 1999 the United States led its NATO allies on a bombing campaign to stop Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević's ethic cleansing of the Albanians inside of Kosovo. The mission in Kosovo did not go as well as planned. After the air strikes, havoc reigned over Kosovo, abuses continued and human rights organizations listed abuses committed by the Alliance members during the campaign. In an attempt to solve the violence NATO countries and the United Nations took on a mission to stabilize and reconstruct the country. A mission which is currently ongoing.

Modern History

After Kosovo, NATO’s ability to be an offensive organization was in question. Some called for the abolishment of the organization, stating that it had lost it original purpose. NATO began to look for its new goal in the 21 century. Then on September 11, 2001, its goal was defined. After the attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon by terrorist, NATO countries quickly responded to come to the United States aid as they had promise in Article Five of their founding treating. AWACS airplanes were sent on surveillance and NATO began its first and only article five mission to this day, Operation Active Endeavor, which was a Maritime mission to protect the Mediterranean from terrorist operations and drug and WMD trafficking. After the end of the Cold War, European defense spending had weakened and its military lacked technology and modernization. In 2002, NATO met for its annual summit, which was held in Prague. The 19 country alliance made a list of improvements that its members needed to make in order to effectively fight the war on terror, these improvements called for, among other thing, a NATO Military Concept for Defense against Terrorism. NATO members also took steps to modernize there forces, all 19 countries agreed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense. NATO also agreed on its new focus, terrorism. As Spain’s former prime minster José María Aznar, said, “Jihadism has replaced Communism, as Communism replaced Nazism, as an existential threat to the liberal democracies.”

Further Expansion and Russian Relations

In 2004, NATO further expanded to Eastern European countries, these included Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania, resulting in an organization of 26 nations. This spark of expansion was seen as an offensive move by Russia and caused a rift in the NATO, Russia relations. The Russian lower house released to the press a statement, "At present we are debating the draft statement of the State Duma which we are planning to adopt in connection with NATO's expansion eastward. Our opinion is equivocal that this act is erroneous. I think that this is a big historical mistake on the part of western states."

Afghanistan

NATO took command and co-ordination of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in August, 2003. When NATO and some non-member states joined (such as Australia and Japan), the initial mission was limited to Kabul, but soon expanded. In 2006, when NATO took over full command over the Afghanistan operation, the Taliban began a major campaign. Commanders complained that their forces were being restricted by national caveats and also that they needed more troops. In the November of 2006, at another NATO summit in Riga, NATO countries removed 15% of caveats placed on troops. NATO called on member governments to provide more troops to their mission in Afghanistan but countries capability's were stretched thin in Kosovo as well as their mission in Iraq of training the new Iraqi government’s security force.

NATO Members

NATO Member NATO Summit Expansion Year
Belgium Founder Original Member, 1949
Canada Founder Original Member, 1949
Denmark Founder Original Member, 1949
France Founder Original Member, 1949
Iceland Founder Original Member, 1949
Italy Founder Original Member, 1949
Luxembourg Founder Original Member, 1949
Netherlands Founder Original Member, 1949
Norway Founder Original Member, 1949
Portugal Founder Original Member, 1949
United Kingdom Founder Original Member, 1949
United States Founder Original Member, 1949
Greece First Round, 1952
Turkey First Round, 1952
Germany First Round, 1952
Spain Third Round, 1982
Czech Republic Washington, D.C. Fourth Round, 1999
Hungary Washington, D.C. Fourth Round, 1999
Poland Washington, D.C. Fourth Round, 1999
Bulgaria Washington, D.C. Fifth Round, 2004
Estonia Istanbul, Turkey Fifth Round, 2004
Latvia Istanbul, Turkey Fifth Round, 2004
Lithuania Istanbul, Turkey Fifth Round, 2004
Romania Istanbul, Turkey Fifth Round, 2004
Slovakia Istanbul, Turkey Fifth Round, 2004
Slovenia Istanbul, Turkey Fifth Round, 2004

External Links