The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, abbreviated to NATO, is a military link between 28 countries of North America and Europe. The organization was founded in 1949 with the aim of ensuring the security of non-communist countries through cooperation. The cooperation is no longer aimed at this, but at more modern threats such as terrorism. One example that NATO is currently working on is to promote stability in Afghanistan.
Participating countries
Initially, few countries were interested in the Convention. However, this changed after World War II and the Cold War. Almost all European countries joined. Below is a list in chronological order of participation.
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- France
- Iceland
- Italy
- Luxembourg
- The Netherlands
- Norway
- Portugal
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Turkey
- Greece
- Germany
- Spain
- Czech Republic
- Poland
- Hungary
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Albania
Core of the Treaty
As mentioned earlier, the Treaty was intended to ensure the security of non-communist countries, in particular because of the many attacks from the Soviet Union. These countries eventually formed the Warsaw Pact. Ultimately, the NATO. The core of the treaty, which can be found in Article 5, states that when an attack takes place on one of the participating countries, this is immediately seen as an attack on all participating countries. This article has only applied once to date: September 11, 2001, when America was attacked.
Organization
Since 2009, the Dane Anders Fogh Rasmussen the Secretary-General. This is the highest civil function of the NATO. Its headquarters are located in Brussels. This head office has previously taken place in locations such as London and Paris. The headquarters is home to approximately 4,500 employees.
Into the headquarters Brussels serves as the political center of NATO. The military center is located in Casteau in the Belgian Mountains.
1949 to the present
- 1949: NATO is founded. Main signatories are Canada, France, the Netherlands and the United States of America.
- 1952: Greece and Turkey join
- 1955: The Warsaw Pact is founded. Germany joins NATO
- 1961: The Berlin Wall is built. The Iron Curtain divides between Eastern and Western Europe
- 1966: France withdraws from NATO military organization. It remains active in the political field
- 1974: Turkish invasion of Cyprus causes Greece to withdraw.
- 1980: Peace returns to Cyprus and Greece rejoins NATO
- 1982: With the accession of Spain, NATO now consists of 16 countries
- 1889: The Berlin Wall falls
- 1990: The reunification of Germany takes place. This makes the territory of the GDR the property of NATO
- 1991: Warsaw Pact is dissolved
- 1999: Accession of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic
- 1999: Major mission in Kosovo
- 2004: Seven more countries join
- 2009: Accession of Albania and Croatia. France becomes full member again.
- 2011: Large-scale mission in Libya