The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, known as NATO, is a defensive alliance between Europe and North America, established amid the rising tensions of the Cold War, and it is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. After the Cold War ended with the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO underwent various stages, reaching what French President Emmanuel Macron termed "clinical death," until it regained strength by adding new members due to the Russian-Ukrainian war.
After World War II, with the rise of new global powers represented by the United States and the Soviet Union, 12 countries signed a military treaty in 1949 that established NATO. These countries were: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and eight other European nations. They committed to protecting each other by political and military means. Over the decades since then, the alliance expanded to include 30 members: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NATO aims to promote peace and stability and protect the security of its members.
**What is NATO's Objective?**
The aim of the U.S.-led alliance was to protect Western European countries from the threat posed by the Soviet Union and to counter the spread of communism after World War II. NATO functions as a collective security alliance with the goal of providing mutual collective defense among member states through military and political means in the event of any external threat to a member country.
The principle of collective defense is at the very heart of NATO’s founding treaty. According to Article 5 of the treaty regarding collective defense: "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. The members of the alliance agree that if such an armed attack occurs, all members may exercise the right of individual or collective self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, to assist the member or members attacked by any means necessary immediately, whether individually or collectively, including the use of armed force to restore and maintain security in the North Atlantic area." Article 5 has been activated only once by the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
**How Can Countries Join the Alliance?**
It may take a year to apply and join NATO, and all member countries must agree that a new country can join, in addition to the fact that the requesting country must not be at war. NATO member countries must have a democratic governance system, treat minorities fairly, commit to peacefully resolving conflicts, and also provide military support to the alliance.
The Soviet Union responded to NATO by creating its own military alliance, consisting of communist Eastern European countries, called the Warsaw Pact, following a conference of Eastern bloc countries in the Polish capital, Warsaw. The birth of the pact was marked by the entry of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany at the time) into NATO on May 9, 1955, which the Soviet Union saw as a serious threat. The Warsaw Pact stipulated that member states would defend any member state attacked by an external force and established a military under the command of Soviet Marshal Ivan Koniev. However, significant events that followed, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, paved the way for a new security framework in Europe after the Cold War. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact fell apart, and most of the countries that left it joined NATO, including Poland itself.
In 1999, the Visegrad Group countries, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, joined NATO; in 2004, members of the Vilnius Group, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined the alliance. In 2009, NATO approved the accession of Albania and Croatia, bringing the total number of member states to 30, with Montenegro joining in 2017 and North Macedonia in 2020. Recently, three countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine, were listed among aspiring members.
Following the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO earlier this year. The two countries completed their accession talks with 28 nations approving Stockholm and Helsinki's membership requests; the primary objections came from Turkey and Hungary.
**NATO in Yugoslavia**
Between March and June 1999, NATO conducted a focused air campaign against Serbia and Montenegro during the Kosovo War (Yugoslavia), leading to an agreement for the withdrawal of Yugoslav armed forces from Kosovo and establishing a UN mission to administer it. This intervention occurred after the war reached the level of committing genocide against Albanians who rebelled against Belgrade, establishing the "Kosovo Liberation Army" in 1996.
**The Clinical Death of NATO**
In 2019, President Emmanuel Macron described NATO as being in a state of "brain death," a statement that sparked a series of comments both within and outside the alliance. Macron criticized the lack of coordination between the U.S. and Europe and Turkey's unilateral action by entering Syria. He questioned the alliance's position should a war break out between Syria and Turkey. He warned that Europe might disappear if it did not act as a unified power, asserting that America's distancing from the European project and the rise of China would marginalize Europe. He emphasized the need for Europe to develop its strategic military capability to secure its defense independence.
**What is NATO's Role During the Russian-Ukrainian War?**
Since the Russian invasion, NATO has increased the number and size of its multinational battlegroups stationed in Eastern Europe. During the summit of NATO member countries held in Madrid in June 2022, the alliance's official position on Russia changed, abandoning the description of Russia as a "strategic partner," which was adopted in 2010, and designating it as a "direct threat" to the alliance's security. Given that Ukraine is not a NATO member, the alliance is not obligated to defend it or send troops, but several NATO countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., are providing Ukraine with weapons to assist in its defense against Russia.
**Ukraine**
On July 12, 2023, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that "Ukraine is now closer to the alliance than ever before." In a joint press conference alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, Stoltenberg expressed: "I look forward to the day when we meet as allies." He stressed that supporting Ukraine's war effort against Russia and ensuring sufficient weapons supply remains the most urgent task for Western allies, despite ongoing discussions about Ukraine's future accession to the alliance.
**Russia**
In 2008, NATO offered Ukraine a path to membership, and following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine prioritized joining the alliance. However, Russia strongly opposed this, and one of its demands before the war was that Ukraine should never be allowed to join NATO. Russia believes NATO has encroached on its political sphere of influence by attracting new members from Eastern Europe, stating that accepting Ukraine would bring NATO to its own backyard.
