North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty
(also called the Washington Treaty) of April 4, 1949, which sought to create a counterweight to Soviet
armies stationed in central and eastern Europe after World War II. Its original members were Belgium,
Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. Joining the original signatories were Greece and Turkey (1952); West
Germany (1955; from 1990 as Germany); Spain (1982); the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland (1999);
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (2004); Albania and Croatia (2009);
Montenegro (2017); and North Macedonia (2020). France withdrew from the integrated military
command of NATO in 1966 but remained a member of the organization; it resumed its position in
NATO’s military command in 2009.The heart of NATO is expressed in Article 5 of the North Atlantic
Treaty, in which the signatory members 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-
defense recognized 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. NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in 2001, after the September 11 attacks organized by
exiled Saudi Arabian millionaire Osama bin Laden destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City
and part of the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., killing some 3,000 people.Article 6 defines the
geographic scope of the treaty as covering “an armed attack on the territory of any of the Parties in
Europe or North America.” Other articles commit the allies to strengthening their democratic
institutions, to building their collective military capability, to consulting each other, and to remaining
open to inviting other European states to join.

Historical background

After World War II in 1945, western Europe was economically exhausted and militarily weak (the
western Allies had rapidly and drastically reduced their armies at the end of the war), and newly
powerful communist parties had arisen in France and Italy. By contrast, the Soviet Union had emerged
from the war with its armies dominating all the states of central and eastern Europe, and by 1948
communists under Moscow’s sponsorship had consolidated their control of the governments of those
countries and suppressed all noncommunist political activity. What became known as the Iron Curtain, a
term popularized by Winston Churchill, had descended over central and eastern Europe. Further,
wartime cooperation between the western Allies and the Soviets had completely broken down. Each
side was organizing its own sector of occupied Germany, so that two German states would emerge, a
democratic one in the west and a communist one in the east. In 1948 the United States launched the
Marshall Plan, which infused massive amounts of economic aid to the countries of western and
southern Europe on the condition that they cooperate with each other and engage in joint planning to
hasten their mutual recovery. As for military recovery, under the Brussels Treaty of 1948, the United
Kingdom, France, and the Low Countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg—concluded a
collective-defense agreement called the Western European Union. It was soon recognized, however,
that a more formidable alliance would be required to provide an adequate military counterweight to the
Soviets.By this time Britain, Canada, and the United States had already engaged in secret exploratory
talks on security arrangements that would serve as an alternative to the United Nations (UN), which was
becoming paralyzed by the rapidly emerging Cold War. In March 1948, following a virtual communist
coup d’état in Czechoslovakia in February, the three governments began discussions on a multilateral
collective-defense scheme that would enhance Western security and promote democratic values. These
discussions were eventually joined by France, the Low Countries, and Norway and in April 1949 resulted
in the North Atlantic Treaty.

Organization

Spurred by the North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950 (see Korean War), the United States
took steps to demonstrate that it would resist any Soviet military expansion or pressures in Europe.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the leader of the Allied forces in western Europe in World War II, was
named Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) by the North Atlantic Council (NATO’s governing
body) in December 1950. He was followed as SACEUR by a succession of American generalsThe North
Atlantic Council, which was established soon after the treaty came into effect, is composed of ministerial
representatives of the member states, who meet at least twice a year. At other times the council,
chaired by the NATO secretary-general, remains in permanent session at the ambassadorial level. Just as
the position of SACEUR has always been held by an American, the secretary-generalship has always been
held by a European.

NATO’s military organization encompasses a complete system of commands for possible wartime use.
The Military Committee, consisting of representatives of the military chiefs of staff of the member
states, subsumes two strategic commands: Allied Command Operations (ACO) and Allied Command
Transformation (ACT). ACO is headed by the SACEUR and located at Supreme Headquarters Allied
Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Casteau, Belgium. ACT is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. During the
alliance’s first 20 years, more than $3 billion worth of “infrastructure” for NATO forces—bases, airfields,
pipelines, communications networks, depots—was jointly planned, financed, and built, with about one-
third of the funding from the United States. NATO funding generally is not used for the procurement of
military equipment, which is provided by the member states—though the NATO Airborne Early Warning
Force, a fleet of radar-bearing aircraft designed to protect against a surprise low-flying attack, was
funded jointly.