Created to curb the expansionism of the USSR and keep the Americans in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has grown from 12 to 32 members in more than seven decades of history. A retrospective.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) celebrates its 75th anniversary this Thursday (04/04). Created in 1949 with originally 12 members, the military alliance now has 32 members, with Finland joining last year and Sweden this year.
Founded after the Second World War
On April 4, 1949, ten European countries, the United States and Canada signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington. This is considered the birth of NATO.
The military alliance began with the aim of confronting the expansionist ambitions of the communist Soviet Union and preventing nationalist militarism in Western Europe. At the same time, it sought to ensure that the US was permanently committed to Europe four years after the end of the Second World War.
In 1945, the US used atomic bombs on Japan for the first time. In 1949, the Soviet Union (USSR) detonated its first atomic bomb.
On May 9, 1955, after a controversial debate, the Federal Republic of Germany, i.e. the western part of the two German states, joined NATO. Just five days later, the Warsaw Pact, the Eastern European military alliance led by the Soviet Union, was signed.
The East German state, the GDR, joined the Warsaw Pact. West Germans and East Germans were divided by the Iron Curtain – the Eastern European nations that formed the socialist bloc – and found themselves in different alliances.
From confrontation to détente
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961 brought the US and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war. After an unprecedented escalation, the leadership in Moscow relented and halted the deployment of nuclear weapons in Cuba after a series of backroom deals with the Americans, including the withdrawal of US missiles from Turkey. Shaken by this near-war, NATO decided to adopt a more cautious policy.
The Cold War would not become a hot war. NATO changed its concept. From now on, there would be a “flexible response” to a Soviet attack, i.e. gradual military action. A nuclear strike remained the last deterrent.
In 1966, France almost broke with the military alliance. President Charles de Gaulle insisted on his independence in military decisions, and France ended up leaving NATO’s command structures, but not the political alliance. The organization’s headquarters were moved from Paris to Brussels. It wasn’t until 2009 that France rejoined the group.
New Cold War, end of the Warsaw Pact
In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and deployed more missiles in Europe. NATO responded with a controversial rearmament of missiles. In 1985, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was appointed to the highest office in the Soviet Union. With him, Soviet policy changed radically.
The conflict between East and West subsided, and disarmament treaties were signed. The then US president, Ronald Reagan (1981 to 1989), asked him to tear down the Berlin Wall.
First, Poland left the union of communist states. The GDR imploded in 1989. The Soviet Union did not intervene.
NATO wondered whether reunified Germany should be part of the Western military alliance. The Soviet Union, the USA, France and Great Britain – the victorious powers of the Second World War – were in favor. In 1991, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved because the former communist states threw off the dominance of the Soviet Union.
“Founding act” between NATO and Russia
But instead of disbanding, the NATO organization, under US leadership, decided that it was still necessary to prevent militaristic nationalism in Europe and to guarantee democracy and human rights. The enemy, the Soviet Union, disintegrated.
NATO sought to establish a strategic partnership with Russia. In 1997, the two sides signed the “NATO-Russia Founding Act” in Paris. In this act, Russia did not veto eastward expansion and the alliance guaranteed that it would not permanently station troops in the new member countries.
Back in 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved, Russian President Boris Yeltsin contemplated his country joining NATO. This idea was taken up again in 2000 by the new Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
In disintegrated Yugoslavia, NATO acted in the 1990s to pacify civil wars and protect Europe from escalation. In 1995, 60,000 people from the Implementation Force (IFOR), a NATO peacekeeping force, were stationed in Bosnia-Herzegovina with a mandate from the United Nations.
In 1999, NATO bombed Serbian cities to force the withdrawal of Serbian units from Kosovo. According to the United Nations, a humanitarian catastrophe was imminent because of the systematic persecution and expulsion of Kosovo Albanians.
Even so, the United Nations did not issue a mandate for a mission. NATO self-determined, which is considered controversial under international law.
The alliance sent a force to Kosovo (KFOR), which is still active today. The conflict between Serbia and Kosovo remains unresolved 25 years after the bombing.
The mutual defense clause
After the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, the military alliance declared the mutual defense clause for the first – and so far only – time. According to Article 5, all NATO members support the attacked country with the means they consider appropriate.
The fight against terrorism would keep NATO busy for 20 years. After the fall of the Taliban regime, an international force under the leadership of the organization entered Afghanistan to pacify the country and establish democracy.
But in the summer of 2021, the plan failed. In chaotic fashion, the last international troops left the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the Taliban returned to power.
At the same time, the organization entered a serious crisis. US President Donald Trump even considered NATO obsolete. Putting pressure on his allies, he sought to increase defense investments.
French President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, said he considered NATO to be in a state of “brain death” due to the US’s lack of loyalty to the alliance.
Back to the beginning: Russia as an enemy
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it has become abundantly clear to the alliance that Russia is the enemy, and national defense is the group’s main task – just as it was when it was founded.
Putin has opposed NATO’s eastward expansion since 2008. However, in April 2008, the alliance promised this step to Ukraine and Georgia, although without giving concrete dates, something seen by these countries as a practical rejection, with Germany and France leading the decision not to offer an alliance membership plan.
In 1999, the organization admitted Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, at the time still with Russia’s approval. In 2004, the three Baltic countries, which were once Soviet republics, and Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria, were admitted.
In 2014, Putin annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and began directly supporting Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia would once again become NATO’s main adversary after just over two decades of relatively peaceful coexistence.
NATO responded by positioning small “battle groups” on its eastern flank and increasing the operational availability of an intervention force. Meanwhile, the expansion continues. Croatia, Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia have joined the alliance.
Sweden and Finland strengthen alliance
After the attack on Ukraine in 2022, Finland and Sweden, which until then had been neutral, also applied to join NATO. Both were accepted after initial opposition from Turkey and Hungary.
Today, the organization has 32 members, 20 more than when it was created. The most important task is once again territorial defense.
NATO members, and not the organization itself, promise financial support and equipment to Ukraine until Russia ends the war. The alliance is determined to avoid being seen as part of the war by Russia and being attacked.
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