NATO in ten questions

French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman signs the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949 in Washington.

© Bettmann/Getty Images

Text by: Patricia Blettery Follow

11 mins

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, born after the Second World War, is a military alliance of countries in Europe and North America responsible for ensuring collective security.

But how does it work?

Who funds it?

What are its military and political objectives and are they the same as when it was created.

Response elements.

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Why was NATO created and on what principles?

On April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed by 12 countries including France, Canada and the United States to ensure the security of the countries of Western Europe, ravaged by the damage caused by the Second World War. World War, and to counter Soviet expansionism.

In 1950, the shock of the Korean War pushed the signatories to endow this treaty with permanent civil and military structures.

In 1952, Turkey and Greece joined them, followed by the FRG in 1955, and in 1982, by Spain.

Today, this military and political alliance brings together 30 countries.

This is based on Article 5 of the Treaty.

It guarantees automatic military assistance if one of the member countries is attacked by another state.

It is for this reason that we speak of a defensive alliance, of a collective security system as well. 

Who leads NATO?

The Secretary General of NATO is traditionally a European, appointed for 4 years by the governments of the allied countries.

It can be renewed.

Currently and since 2014, it is the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg.

NATO has two structures, one civilian and one military.

In the first, decisions are taken by consensus within the North Atlantic Council, which brings together representatives of all the Member States.

Decisions concerning NATO activities are taken there, but also any question relating to the territorial integrity, political independence or security of one of the parties.

Two meetings per year are held of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of each country.

A summit is also held every two years.

Parallel to the political structure, there is the military command still led by an American.

US General Christopher Cavoli will succeed Tod D. Wolters in the summer of 2022.

What is NATO's Rapid Reaction Force?

In the event of a major crisis, NATO has a rapid reaction force (NRF) made up of units from the 30 member countries, operational since 2004 and capable of rapid deployment.

It has 40,000 soldiers who can be mobilized and are ready for combat.

It is the countries of the Alliance which assign, by a rotation system, land, air, maritime or SOF (Special Operations Forces) units for 12 months.

This force intervened in particular to coordinate the departure from Afghanistan in August 2021. It was deployed for the first time to ensure collective defense in February 2022 following the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

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Which countries can join NATO?

It is article 10 which establishes the modalities of the “open door policy”.

Any European country wishing to join must be able to promote the principles of

, and contribute to the security of the Euro-Atlantic area.

In 1999, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO.

In 2004, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania as well as Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia did the same.

Next will come Albania and Croatia in 2009, then Montenegro in 2017 and, finally, North Macedonia in 2020. The question of NATO enlargement is central since it causes tensions in Russia, which doubts of the defensive nature of the Alliance.

In the midst of the war in Ukraine, Finland and Sweden are asking to join NATO in 2022. If there are many steps before reaching final membership, the context suggests that this process will be faster.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Ukraine are also awaiting membership.

What were NATO's main operations?

At the end of the Cold War, the question of the survival of the Alliance arises.

It will expand its field of action, particularly geographically, but also carry out actions justified by humanitarian crises.

In 1999, on March 24, NATO air forces struck Serbia and demanded the withdrawal of its forces from Kosovo.

This military operation, at the initiative of NATO, lasts 11 weeks and calls into question the principle of the intangibility of borders.

By practicing the duty of intervention for humanitarian reasons, the organization calls into question the principle of defensive alliance and asserts itself as an intervention force.

After September 2001, NATO got involved against terrorism and in Afghanistan, far from the North Atlantic area.

She took over the management of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), under a UN mandate.

It is then a matter of keeping NATO alive and demonstrating its usefulness.

In March 2011, NATO intervened in Libya "to protect the Libyan people" from the "brutal acts" of Muammar Gaddafi.

Some consider that NATO is the armed arm of the UN.

The two organizations, which indeed cooperate in the maintenance of international peace and security, have been led to intensify their ties.

In particular in 1995, the United Nations asked NATO, on the basis of Security Council resolution 1031, to implement the military aspects of the peace agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina (

).

What is NATO's nuclear policy?

Since 1954, within the framework of NATO, nuclear forces have been positioned in several European countries under the responsibility of the Americans.

Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey, without officially recognizing it, have this type of weapon on their territory (number estimated at 140 in 2019).

The Alliance's nuclear deterrent is also provided by the strategic arsenals of the United States, together with the autonomous nuclear forces of the United Kingdom and France.

What is NATO's integrated command and why did France leave it in 1966?

In 1959, when General de Gaulle came to power, he wanted to assert France's independence from the United States.

He proposes a reform of NATO with a triumvirate that would take command (United States, United Kingdom, France).

The Americans refuse.

France will therefore distance itself.

It carried out its first nuclear test in 1960 and therefore needed less American power to defend it.

On March 7, 1966, General de Gaulle wrote to President Johnson to inform him of France's decision to recover the full exercise of its sovereignty on national soil and of its intention to withdraw its forces from the integrated commands of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The French do not come out of NATO, but from the integrated commander.

The headquarters of the organization left the 16th arrondissement of Paris (buildings of the current Paris-Dauphine University) for Brussels.

The military bases installed in France (70,000 soldiers) are moving.

France leaves a position of military submission to become the ally of the United States (“ 

 ”, according to the formula of Hubert Védrine).

In 2009, Nicolas Sarkozy, then President of the Republic, decided to reinstate the integrated command of NATO, a decision that was more political than military and which essentially implied that France would be consulted upstream of decisions, but also greater financial participation. .

Even today, the question of the transatlantic partnership arouses very different positions within the French political class, some pleading to withdraw from the integrated command, others a total disengagement from NATO.

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What is the "financial burden"?

To what extent does the United States dominate NATO? 

The question of the financing of collective security clearly illustrates the weight of the Americans in NATO.

From 2006, concerning defense expenditure, each State must devote at least 2% of its GDP.

In 2018, only three EU states, Greece (2.39%), Estonia (2.06%) and France (2.29%), complied with the rule.

The United States devotes 3.16% of its GDP to it, or 648.8 billion dollars.

In 2018, Donald Trump, who became president, criticized Europeans for not putting their hands in their wallets enough.

He questions Article 5 of NATO.

The United States is distancing itself from NATO for financial reasons.

The Europeans are considering more autonomy to counter dependence on Washington.

The arrival of Joe Biden in power in 2021 is reassuring.

It reaffirms that Article 5 of the Treaty of

” for the United States.

The question of the domination of the United States over the other NATO countries arises from the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty.

At the end of the Second World War, victors and vanquished needed the Americans to ward off any risk of a new world conflict.

At the end of the Cold War, the member countries of NATO decided to preserve the Alliance, supported in this by the United States, which wished to remain a European power.

The former countries of the Warsaw Pact (military alliance grouping the countries of Eastern Europe with the USSR) still live in fear of Moscow.

Between 1999 and 2009, twelve countries, former allies of the Soviet Union, joined NATO.

Little by little, the Americans will use NATO to increase their influence in the world.

In his book 

 published in 1997, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former diplomatic adviser to American President Jimmy Carter, underlines the use made of NATO by the Americans and their ulterior motives: " 

the near abroad

.

»

Why hasn't Europe created its own common defense organization? 

The defense of the territory of Europe is ensured by the Atlantic Alliance, but also by the nuclear deterrent forces of the United Kingdom and France.

Hubert Védrine, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, recalled, in a 2012 report, this principle of identity between the defense of Europe and NATO. 

While there is regular talk of European defence, no State has expressed its desire to set up permanent structured cooperation, even though it was provided for by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. France, for its part, is campaigning for a Europe defense, sovereign and complementary to NATO. 

At the end of March 2022, in the midst of the war in Ukraine, the European Union nevertheless adopted a White Paper on European defence, called the Strategic Compass, a new stage in dealing with competition between powers, the persistence of crises in its neighborhood and to act wherever its action is requested (seas and oceans, airspace, cyberspace, etc.)

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How is the war in Ukraine a turning point for NATO? 

The Russian offensive in Ukraine begins on February 24, 2022, when the question of the future of NATO is increasingly raised.

Already at the end of the Cold War, with the disappearance of the Russian threat, this question had been debated.

Emmanuel Macron puts his feet back in the dish in 2019, in an interview with the weekly 

.

He deplores the military operation in Syria by Turkey, a member of NATO, and its behavior vis-à-vis the Kurds and regrets the lack of coordination between the United States and Europe.

He speaks of the "brain death" of the Alliance.   

However, the imperialist aims of Vladimir Putin with the war in Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in the Donbass in 2014, suggest that Europe is not done with the Russian threat.

The invasion of Ukraine provokes a rapid consensus, NATO reinforces its troops.

Ukraine is asking for membership.

Finland and Sweden, which share close geographical proximity to Russia, too.

These two States, members of the European Union, renounce their respective historical neutralities.

A neutrality that has become synonymous with vulnerability.

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