What is NATO: history, organization, functions

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO for short), also known as the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance. NATO, which consists of 28 states bordering the North Atlantic Ocean (namely Canada, the United States, Turkey and most members of the European Union), was created to protect its freedoms. In its treaty signed in Washington on April 4, 1949 and justifying what NATO is, it is indicated that an armed attack on one of the members of the alliance should be considered an attack on all.

The North Atlantic Alliance stands for the rule of law, democracy, individual freedom, and the peaceful resolution of disputes and promotes such values in the Euro-Atlantic region. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

So what is NATO? This is a forum in which the countries of Europe and North America have the opportunity to consult with each other on security issues of mutual interest and take joint action to resolvethese questions. In recent years, NATO's purpose has expanded to include defense against weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and cyber attacks. The fight against terrorism was included in the priority goals of the alliance after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001, which is considered an attack on the United States.

To better understand what NATO is, let's turn to history. The military bloc was created after the Second World War ended, within the framework of the United Nations. Its main purpose was to protect the member countries from the large numbers of communist countries' troops. Further, the history of NATO developed during the Cold War, when the organization's mission expanded to prevent

nuclear war. After joining the West German bloc, communist countries, including the USSR, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany, formed the Warsaw Pact alliance. In response, NATO adopted a policy of massive retaliation, promising to use nuclear weapons if attacked.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as well as after the collapse of the USSR, relations between NATO and Russia began to be based on bilateral cooperation. In 2002, the Russia-NATO Council was created to regulate general security issues. Alliance top priority

became a mission in Afghanistan. For the success of the peacekeeping mission, the organization even asked for help from its main competitor, Russia.

Throughoutover the years, NATO has become stronger and strengthened ties between members. The treaty itself served as the basis and model for other international collective security agreements. Today, the question of what NATO is can be answered with certainty: it is one of the most successful defensive alliances of all time, which is currently influencing the scenario of various world changes. Our future world is filled with known and unknown threats. NATO can act as a beacon on the high seas of various dangers.