NATO

The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.

[17] Talks for a wider military alliance, which could include North America, also began that month in the United States, where their foreign policy under the Truman Doctrine set out in 1947 promoted international solidarity against actions they saw as communist aggression, such as the February 1948 coup d'état in Czechoslovakia.

[19][20][21] The North Atlantic Treaty was largely dormant until the Korean War initiated the establishment of NATO to implement it with an integrated military structure.

[23][24] Following the London and Paris Conferences, West Germany was permitted to rearm militarily, as they joined NATO in May 1955, which was, in turn, a major factor in the creation of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact, delineating the two opposing sides of the Cold War.

It mandated specific military reductions across the continent, which continued after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in February 1991 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union that December, which removed the de facto main adversaries of NATO.

[45] At the 2014 Wales summit, the leaders of NATO's member states formally committed for the first time to spend the equivalent of at least two percent of their gross domestic products on defence by 2024, which had previously been only an informal guideline.

More than half of this number have been deployed in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland, which five countries muster a considerable combined ex-NATO force of 259,000 troops.

From June 1993 until October 1996, Operation Sharp Guard added maritime enforcement of the arms embargo and economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

[59] In August 1995, a two-week NATO bombing campaign, Operation Deliberate Force, began against the Army of the Republika Srpska, after the Srebrenica genocide.

[62] In an effort to stop Slobodan Milošević's Serbian-led crackdown on KLA separatists and Albanian civilians in Kosovo, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1199 on 23 September 1998 to demand a ceasefire.

[66] The US/UK side claimed that this would undermine the authority of the alliance, and they noted that Russia and China would have exercised their Security Council vetoes to block the strike on Yugoslavia, and could do the same in future conflicts where NATO intervention was required, thus nullifying the entire potency and purpose of the organization.

Recognizing the post-Cold War military environment, NATO adopted the Alliance Strategic Concept during its Washington summit in April 1999 that emphasized conflict prevention and crisis management.

[54] The alliance showed unity: on 16 April 2003, NATO agreed to take command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which included troops from 42 countries.

The decision came at the request of Germany and the Netherlands, the two countries leading ISAF at the time of the agreement, and all nineteen NATO ambassadors approved it unanimously.

[73] ISAF was initially charged with securing Kabul and surrounding areas from the Taliban, al Qaeda and factional warlords, so as to allow for the establishment of the Afghan Transitional Administration headed by Hamid Karzai.

[76] Due to the intensity of the fighting in the south, in 2011 France allowed a squadron of Mirage 2000 fighter/attack aircraft to be moved into the area, to Kandahar, in order to reinforce the alliance's efforts.

[85] The NATO Training Mission-Iraq (NTM-I) was established at the request of the Iraqi Interim Government under the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546.

The aim of NTM-I was to assist in the development of Iraqi security forces training structures and institutions so that Iraq can build an effective and sustainable capability that addresses the needs of the country.

[88] In 2008 the United Nations Secretary-General called on member-states to protect the ships of Operation Allied Provider [de; no; ru; uk], which was distributing aid as part of the World Food Programme mission in Somalia.

[92] Beginning on 17 August 2009, NATO deployed warships in an operation to protect maritime traffic in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean from Somali pirates, and help strengthen the navies and coast guards of regional states.

[94] A coalition that included several NATO members began enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya shortly afterwards, beginning with Opération Harmattan by the French Air Force on 19 March.

[102][103][104] In his final policy speech in Brussels on 10 June, Gates further criticized allied countries in suggesting their actions could cause the demise of NATO.

[106] While the mission was extended into September, Norway that day (10 June) announced it would begin scaling down contributions and complete withdrawal by 1 August.

[113] Following a coup d'état attempt in October 2013, Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan requested technical advice and trainers from NATO to assist with ongoing security issues.

The latest consultation happened in February 2020, as part of increasing tensions due to the Northwestern Syria offensive, which involved[123] Syrian and suspected Russian airstrikes on Turkish troops, and risked direct confrontation between Russia and a NATO member.

[129] The three Nordic countries which joined NATO as founding members, Denmark, Iceland, and Norway, chose to limit their participation in three areas: there would be no permanent peacetime bases, no nuclear warheads and no Allied military activity (unless invited) permitted on their territory.

These plans governed the addition of new members: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia in 2004, Albania and Croatia in 2009, Montenegro in 2017, and North Macedonia in 2020.

[150] Russia continued to politically oppose further expansion, seeing it as inconsistent with informal understandings between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and European and US negotiators that allowed for a peaceful German reunification.

[157] Member states pay for NATO's three common funds (the civil and military budgets and the security investment programme) based on a cost-sharing formula that includes per capita gross national income and other factors.

[162] On 17 June 2024, prior to the 2024 Washington summit, Stoltenberg updated that figure and announced that a record 23 of 32 NATO member states were meeting their defense spending targets of 2% of their country's GDP.

A long rectangular room with multiple rows of seated individuals on each side, and flags hanging at the far end.
West Germany joined NATO in 1955, which led to the formation of the rival Warsaw Pact during the Cold War .
Two tall concrete sections of a wall in a grass lawn in front of a curved building with blue-glass windows.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked a turning point in NATO's role in Europe, and a section of that wall is displayed outside NATO headquarters .
Group photo of the 2024 Washington summit
NATO E-3A flying with U.S. Air Force F-16s in a NATO exercise.
Steadfast Defender 24 was the largest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War .
A fighter jet with AV marked on its tail takes off from a mountain runway.
A USAF aircraft landing during Operation Deliberate Force after the Srebrenica massacre
Three trucks of soldiers idle on a country road in front of trees and red-roofed houses. The rear truck has KFOR painted on is back.
German KFOR soldiers on patrol in southern Kosovo in 1999
KFOR - MSU Carabinieri Patrols in front of the Ibar Bridge in Mitrovica, Kosovo , 2019
A monumental green copper statue of a woman with a torch stands on an island in front of a mainland where a massive plume of grey smoke billows among skyscrapers.
The September 11 attacks in the United States caused NATO to invoke its collective defence article for the first time.
General Austin S. Miller (right) became commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan in September 2018 and oversaw the withdrawal until July 2021. Lloyd Austin , the 28th United States Secretary of Defense , is on the left.
Italian Major General Giovanni Armentani, Deputy Commanding General for the NATO Training Mission, meets with a U.S. Advise and Assist Brigade.
A tall plume of black smoke rises from the blue ocean waters next to a large grey battleship and a small black inflatable boat.
USS Farragut destroying a Somali pirate skiff in March 2010
Pieces of a destroyed tank, notably the gun turret, lie on a sandy landscape.
Libyan Army Palmaria howitzers destroyed by the French Air Force near Benghazi in March 2011
U.S. and NATO Patriot missile batteries in Turkey.
Member states of NATO are not obligated to come to the defence of territory south of the Tropic of Cancer .
A map of Europe with countries labelled in shades of blue, green, and yellow based on when they joined NATO.
NATO has added 16 new members since German reunification and the end of the Cold War .
A crowd of people in winter coats march past a white domed church above a set of snowy stairs, some carrying signs and blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.
Protestors at a February 2022 rally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine march past the statue of Tsar Alexander II in Senate Square in Helsinki , Finland
Hundreds of soldiers in military uniforms stand behind a line on a tarmac with 14 flags held by individuals at the front.
Partnership for Peace conducts multinational military exercises such as Cooperative Archer, which took place in Tbilisi in July 2007 with 500 servicemen from four NATO members, eight PfP members, and Jordan, a Mediterranean Dialogue participant. [ 165 ]
The North Atlantic Council convening in 2010 with a defence/foreign minister configuration
Flags of NATO member countries outside the NATO headquarters in Brussels .