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 Sovietarmies 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);
WestGermany (1955; from 1990 as Germany); Spain (1982); the Czech Republic,
Hungary, and Poland (1999);Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia,
and Slovenia (2004); and Albania and Croatia(2009). France withdrew from the
integrated military command of NATO in 1966 but remained a member of the
organization; it resumed its position in NATOs 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 terrorist 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.

Historical background
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 theBrussels Treaty of 1948, the United
Kingdom, France, and the Low CountriesBelgium, 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 dtat 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, 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 (NATOs governing body) in December 1950. He was followed
as SACEUR by a succession of American generals.

NATO during the Cold War

From its founding, NATOs primary purpose was to unify and strengthen the Western
Allies military response to a possible invasion of western Europe by the Soviet Union
and its Warsaw Pact allies. In the early 1950s NATO relied partly on the threat of
massive nuclear retaliation from the United States to counter the Warsaw Pacts much
larger ground forces. Beginning in 1957, this policy was supplemented by the
deployment of American nuclear weapons in western European bases. NATO later
adopted a flexible response strategy, which the United States interpreted to mean that
a war in Europe did not have to escalate to an all-out nuclear exchange. Under this
strategy, many Allied forces were equipped with American battlefield and theatre nuclear
weapons under a dual-control (or dual-key) system, which allowed both the country
hosting the weapons and the United States to veto their use. Britain retained control of
its strategic nuclear arsenal but brought it within NATOs planning structures; Frances
nuclear forces remained completely autonomous.

A conventional and nuclear stalemate between the two sides continued through the
construction of theBerlin Wall in the early 1960s, dtente in the 1970s, and the
resurgence of Cold War tensions in the 1980s after the Soviet Unions invasion of
Afghanistan in 1979 and the election of U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1980. After
1985, however, far-reaching economic and political reforms introduced by Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev fundamentally altered the status quo. In July 1989 Gorbachev
announced that Moscow would no longer prop up communist governments in central
and eastern Europe and thereby signaled his tacit acceptance of their replacement by
freely elected (and noncommunist) administrations. Moscows abandonment of control
over central and eastern Europe meant the dissipation of much of the military threat that
the Warsaw Pact had formerly posed to western Europe, a fact that led some to
question the need to retain NATO as a military organizationespecially after the
Warsaw Pacts dissolution in 1991. The reunification of Germany in October 1990 and
its retention of NATO membership created both a need and an opportunity for NATO to
be transformed into a more political alliance devoted to maintaining international
stability in Europe.

During the presidency of Bill Clinton (19932001), the United States led an initiative to
enlarge NATO membership gradually to include some of the former Soviet allies. In the
concurrent debate over enlargement, supporters of the initiative argued that NATO
membership was the best way to begin the long process of integrating these states into
regional political and economic institutions such as the EU. Some also feared future
Russian aggression and suggested that NATO membership would guarantee freedom
and security for the newly democratic regimes. Opponents pointed to the enormous cost
of modernizing the military forces of new members; they also argued that enlargement,
which Russia would regard as a provocation, would hinder democracy in that country
and enhance the influence of hard-liners. Despite these disagreements, the Czech
Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO in 1999; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia were admitted in 2004; and Albania and
Croatia acceded to the alliance in 2009.

Meanwhile, by the beginning of the 21st century, Russia and NATO had formed a
strategic relationship. No longer considered NATOs chief enemy, Russia cemented a
new cooperative bond with NATO in 2001 to address such common concerns as
international terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation, and arms control. This bond was
subsequently subject to fraying, however, in large part because of reasons associated
with Russian domestic politics.

Events following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 led to the forging of a new
dynamic within the alliance, one that increasingly favoured the military engagement of
members outside Europe, initially with a mission against Taliban forces in Afghanistan

beginning in the summer of 2003 and subsequently with air operations against the
regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi in Libya in early 2011. As a result of the increased
tempo of military operations undertaken by the alliance, the long-standing issue of
burden sharing was revived, with some officials warning that failure to share the costs
of NATO operations more equitably would lead to unraveling of the alliance. Most
observers regarded that scenario as unlikely, however.