NATO: Formation & Definition |

At the April 04, 1949 was the NATO founded. The organization should contribute to protection during the Cold War. For this reason, NATO was initially limited to 20 years. However, with the Cold War still raging in 1969, the alliance was extended indefinitely, so the NATO still exists today. But what is NATO anyway?

NATO – Prehistory

A large number of alliances and treaties of later member states can be seen as the forerunners of NATO, which were signed during and afterwards second worldwar were closed. The alliances were each formed in order to attack one common opponent to arm. During World War II, that common adversary was that German Empirethen the Soviet Union.

During the Second World War a coalition formed the USA, the USSR, France and Great Britain arise, which oppose that German Empire and his allies. This allies States also named themselves Anti-Hitler Pact. However, after the German Reich was defeated and demilitarized became obsolete, this pact became obsolete.

Instead, with the end of the Second World War, the risk of Soviet aggression arose, since the Soviet Union with the ideas of the western allies for post-war Germanyd did not agree. They were too big ideological differences. Because during the USA, UK and France Germany wanted to shape liberal capitalism, the Soviet Union intended to enforce its communist system. At the March 17, 1948 so the formed Brussels Pact between Western European countries France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. In addition to economic, cultural and social cooperation, this pact should cooperative self-defense before a possible Soviet attack.

In the same year, on June 11, 1948, the Vandenberg Resolution decided which one mutual defense between the US and European countries determined. When the USA feared a Soviet expansion of power after the Second World War, the US President Harry Truman also a protective power role towards the endangered states in the Truman Doctrine. With that, he came to a head West-East conflict to and the Cold War started.

NATO – Founding

At the beginning of the Cold War, the February coup in Czechoslovakia and also the Berlin blockade a majority of European states to turn to the US and around military assistance to ask. Because they feared the spread of communism and wanted to avoid it.

During the negotiations for North Atlantic Treaty three main points were considered:

• The desire to live in peace with all peoples.

• The democratic civilization together individual freedom and the rule of law to protect.

• the peaceful stability of the member states to protect and defend.

North Atlantic Treaty – Contents

The completed treaty, which forms the basis of NATO, contains 14 articles, which can be broken down into different categories.

Articles 1 and 2 aim at the worldwide peace away:

• In the event of a conflict, an attempt should first be made to find a solution by peaceful means.
• All member states are supposed to achieve global peace development of international relations maintain.

Articles 3 to 6 deal with the Defense in case of attack:

• The military power of defense should be maintained by all Member States.
• In the event of a threat to a Member State, a Consultation between all Member States instead of.
• An armed attack on one of the Contracting States is considered an attack on all and obliges them to one collective defense.
• Contracting States means Member States and States related to Member States.

Articles 7 and 8 determine the Influence of the North Atlantic Treaty:

• The contract does not restrict any point of UN Charter a.
• The North Atlantic Treaty does not affect previously concluded treaties between a member state and another state.

Articles 9 to 11 refer to that Commonality of the Member States:

• There is one NATO Councilincluding representatives of all member states.
• All member states are required to join the NATO of another state unanimously agree.
• The treaty must be endorsed by all member states before it enters into force.

Articles 12 to 14 laid down the duration and validity of the contract:

• The contract owns for at least 10 years of validity.
• After 20 years, the Member States have the possibility to withdraw from the contract.
• The contract is archived and kept.

NATO – structure

NATO was and still is in different organs articulated.

Of the NATO Council is the highest organ of NATO. It consists of representatives of the member states and meets several times a year at its headquarters in Brussels.

The Council decides on all NATO civilian and military issues, and decisions must be taken unanimously. The chairman of the council is general secretary. subordinate to him the General Secretariat, including the international staff. The international staff provides advice to the NATO Council and develops the necessary concepts. The Secretary General also controls the nuclear planning committeewhich keeps an eye on the use and development of nuclear weapons.

The Council can make certain questions and decisions to a respective committee send. Because NATO has a number of committees in the areas Politics, economy, environment, defense and so forth. The most important of these committees is the military committee. The Military Committee consists of representatives of the military organs of the member states and has its Based in Washington. The executive body of the Military Committee is the International Military Staff (IMS). The supreme commanders of the Atlantic (SACLANT), Europe (saceur) and the English Channel (CINCHAN).

While the NATO Council dealt with the basic procedure employed by NATO, the focus of the NATO summit on political developments. Every two to three years, a large number of important political representatives come together to exchange information on important, current political issues and to formulate goals. Among the participants of such a summit are:

• the heads of government of the member states
• Foreign and Defense Ministers and ministers of the member states
• politicians from allied states
• and representatives of states that timing of the summit play an important role.

NATO member states

Today are 30 countries are members of NATO. For the first time the North Atlantic Pact however from twelve founding states signed:

The other member states are:

• Greece
• Turkey
• Germany
• Spain
• Poland
• Czech Republic
• Hungary
• Bulgaria
• Estonia
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Albania
• Croatia
• Montenegro
• North Macedonia

NATO targets

The original purpose of NATO was to form a collective to respond to the threat posed by the Soviet Union. This danger grew as the Cold War progressed, because in 1955 the Warsaw Pact. A military treaty organization of the Eastern Bloc countries that was under the leadership of the Soviet Union. This means that both sides of the West-East conflict about a military alliance, which increased the scope of a possible escalation. Because the more states would have been militarily involved, the larger the scale. So if it were one direct military confrontation come, it could have come to a third world war. However, there was no such escalation; NATO had, to a certain extent, fulfilled its purpose with the end of the Cold War. Nevertheless, NATO was retained, only the objectives of the alliance changed somewhat.

NATO – Tasks during the Cold War

The main tasks of NATO in 1949 were deterrence of possible opponents and the collective defense formulated by the Member States. During the Cold War, this deterrence was provided primarily by the Upgrade and the constant readiness to defend.

NATO’s strategy during the Cold War was initially very simple. In the event of an attack on a member state, a corresponding military responsen are calculated. However, when the Soviet Union began nuclear upgrade, this strategy became partially obsolete. After Cuban Missile Crisis it was recognized that an escalation of the conflict would mean the end of civilization.

As a result, NATO formulated the new strategy for the flexible answer. In a confrontation should first on conventional military means be resorted to before nuclear weapons would be used. True, there continued to be during the Cold War stages of confrontationbut there was no nuclear war.

Still, the nuclear weapons served the so-called arms race – a method of deterring the opposing side with military resources. On both sides of the West-East conflict, arms continued to be raised until the Eventually the Eastern Bloc fell apart.

In addition to military cooperation, NATO saw itself from the outset as political alliance and community of values.

NATO – Tasks after the Cold War

After Germany was reunited, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact fell apart and the…