The
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(
NATO) is an
international organization for defence
collaboration established in
1949, in support of the
North Atlantic Treaty signed in
Washington, D.C. on
April 4,
1949.
The core provision of the treaty is Article
V, which states:
- The Parties agree that an armed attack
against one or more of them in Europe or
North America shall be considered an attack
against them all and consequently they agree
that, if such an armed attack occurs, each
of them, in exercise of the right of
individual or collective self-defence
recognised by Article 51 of the
Charter of the United Nations, will
assist the Party or Parties so attacked by
taking forthwith, individually and in
concert with the other Parties, such action
as it deems necessary, including the use of
armed force, to restore and maintain the
security of the North Atlantic area.
This provision was intended so that if the
Soviet Union launched an attack against the
European allies of the
United States, it would be treated as if it
was an attack on the United States itself.
However the feared Soviet invasion of Europe
never came. Instead, the provision was used for
the first time in the treaty's history on
September 12,
2001 in response to the
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack.
From the foundation in 1949 or with the year of
accession.
Greece and Turkey joined the organization in
February
1952. Germany joined as
West Germany in
1955 and German unification in
1990 extended the membership to the areas of
former East Germany. Spain was admitted on
May 30,
1982 and the former
Warsaw Pact Countries of Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic made history by becoming
members on
March 12,
1999.
France is still a member of NATO but retired
from the military command in
1966. Iceland, the sole member of NATO which
does not have its own military force, joined on
the condition that they would not be forced to
participate in warfare.
On
March 17,
1948
Benelux,
France, and the
United Kingdom signed the
Treaty of Brussels[?] which is a precursor
to the NATO Agreement.
The
Soviet Union and its satellite states formed
the
Warsaw Pact in the 1950s in order to
counterbalance NATO. Both organisations were
opposing sides in the
cold war. After the fall of the Iron Curtain
in
1989, the Warsaw Pact disintegrated.
NATO saw its first military engagement in the
Kosovo War, where it waged an 11-week
bombing campaign against Serbian forces starting
on
March 24,
1999.
Three former communist countries, Hungary,
the Czech Republic and Poland, joined NATO in
1999. At the
Prague (Czech Republic) summit of
November 21-22,
2002 seven countries have been invited to
start talks in order to join the Alliance:
Estonia,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Slovenia,
Slovakia,
Bulgaria and
Romania. The invited countries are expected
to join NATO in
2004.
Albania and the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will
probably be told they have not met the economic,
political and military reform criteria and will
have to wait.
Croatia applied only in 2002 and has just
started the process.
Charles de Gaulle's decision to remove
France from NATO's military command in
1966 to pursue its own nuclear defence
program precipitated the relocation of the NATO
Headquarters from
Paris, France to
Brussels, Belgium by
October 16,
1967. While the political headquarters is
located in Brussels the military headquarters,
the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
(SHAPE), are located just south of Brussles, in
the town of
Mons.
September 13,
2001, NATO invoked, for the first time in
its history, an article in its charter that
states that any attack on a member state is
considered an attack against the entire
alliance. This came in response to the
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack/
On
February 10,
2003 NATO faced a serious crisis because of
France and
Belgium breaking the procedure of silent
approval concerning the timing of protective
measures for
Turkey in case of a possible war with
Iraq.
Germany did not use its right to break the
procedure but said it supported the veto.
On
April 16,
2003, NATO agreed to take command in
August of the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
in
Afghanistan. The decision came at the
request of
Germany and the
Netherlands, the two nations leading ISAF at
the time of the agreement. It was approved
unanimously by all 19 NATO ambassadors. This
marked first time in NATO's history that it took
charge of a mission outside the north Atlantic
area.
Canada had originally been slated to take
over ISAF in August.
See also:
Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council,
OSCE,
WEU,
UN
