|
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established under the North Atlantic Treaty (Apr. 4, 1949) by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States. Greece and Turkey entered the alliance in 1952, West Germany (now Germany) entered in 1955, and Spain joined in 1982. In 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined, bringing the membership to 19. NATO maintains headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
The treaty, one of the major Western countermeasures in the cold war against the threat of aggression by the Soviet Union, was aimed at safeguarding the freedom of the Atlantic community. Considering an armed attack on any member an attack against all, the treaty provided for collective self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The treaty was also designed to encourage political, economic, and social cooperation. The organization was reorganized and centralized in 1952.
In the 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, NATO's role in world affairs has changed, and U.S. forces in Europe have been halved. Many East European nations sought NATO membership as a counterbalance to Russian power, but they, along with other European and Asian nations (including Russia), were offered instead membership in the more limited Partnership for Peace, formed in 1994. Twenty-seven countries now belong to the partnership, which engages in joint military exercises with NATO. NATO is not required to defend Partnership for Peace nations from attack. In 2002, NATO and Russia established the NATO-Russia Council, through which Russia participates in NATO discussions on many nondefense issues.
NATO air forces were used under UN auspices in punitive attacks on Serb forces in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and the alliance's forces were subsequently used for peacekeeping operations in Bosnia. NATO again launched air attacks in Mar.–June, 1999, this time on Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro) following following the breakdown of negotiations over Kosovo. In June, 1999, NATO was authorized by the United Nations to begin trying to restore order in the province, and NATO peacekeeping forces entered Kosovo.
NATO's highest organ, the North Atlantic Council, may meet on several levels : heads of government, ministers, or permanent representatives. The council determines policy and supervises the civilian and military agencies; NATO's secretary-general chairs the council. Under the council is the Military Committee, which may meet at the chiefs of staff or permanent representative level. Its headquarters in Washington, D.C., has representatives of the chiefs of staff of all member countries; France, however, withdrew from the Military Committee from 1966 to 1995 while remaining a member of the council.
The area covered by the North Atlantic Treaty is divided among three commands and a regional planning group. The European Command is under the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and covers territory from the North Cape to the Mediterranean Sea and from the eastern border of Turkey to the Atlantic Ocean. SACEUR directs the NATO forces assigned to the command and, in time of war, would control all land, sea, and air operations in the European Command. The Atlantic Command covers the area from the North Pole to the Tropic of Cancer and from the coast of North America to the coasts of Africa and Europe. It is headed by the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT), with headquarters at Norfolk, Va. There is also a Channel Command, responsible for covering the English Channel and the southern area of the North Sea. The Canada–United States Regional Planning Group coordinates the defense of North America with the overall operations of NATO.
Bibliography :
See P. H. Spaak, Why NATO? (1959); R. Osgood, The Entangling Alliance (1964); A. Beaufre, NATO and Europe (1966); J. Huntley, The NATO Story (1969); J. A. Huston, One for All: NATO Strategy and Logistics through the Formative Period, 1949–1969 (1984); L. P. Brady and J. P. Kaufman, ed., NATO in the 1980s (1985); W. H. Park, Defending the West (1986); J. R. Golden et al., ed., NATO at Forty (1989).
|
