BEFORE WE START:

THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY

ORGANIZATION
ON NOVEMBER 9, 1953, THE NATO FLAG WAS OFFICIALLY
INTRODUCED IN A CEREMONY IN PARIS. THE FLAG HOLDS:
A four pointed star representing the compass that keeps the
organization on the right road which is the path of peace
A circle representing the unity that binds the member-countries
A blue background representing the Atlantic Ocean

THE NATO STAR

THE ORIGINAL NATO EMBLEM
 The shield symbolized defense and protection
The two blue stripes represented the Atlantic Ocean
14 stars representing the members at that time(1952)

The emblem was eventually abandoned as it required to add

additional stars for every new member to join

THE SILVER SHIELD

 APRIL 4, 1949- NATO officially came into existence with signing of
the North Atlantic Treaty or the Washington Treaty at the
Departmental Auditorium, Washington DC by the 12 original
members.
The 12 original members are: Belgium, Canada, Denmark,
France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway,
Portugal, United Kingdom, and the United States.

HISTORY
 The precursor of the organization was the Treaty of Brussels which
is also a mutual defense agreement signed on March 17, 1948 by
Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and the United
Kingdom with the impending Soviet threat(Berlin blockade and
the Communist Czechoslovakia coup detat).
It formed an alliance called the Western European Union's
Defense Organization but the organization was militarily weak to
counter the power of the USSR.
The five seek the might of the United states and after some talks,
a new mutual defense alliance was eventually formed after the
US President Truman signed the North Atlantic Treaty together
with the five and the other six original members.
 Under the words of the first NATO Secretary-General, Lord
Hastings Ismay of the United Kingdom, the organization's goal
was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the
Germans down.
 In 1950, the Korean War erupted. It became a crucial point for
NATO against the growing power of the Soviets. As a response, it
formed its first concrete military force called the Supreme
Headquarters Allied Powers Europe(SHAPE) under Supreme Allied
Commander Dwight Eisenhower to direct its forces in Europe.
 In 1955, Germany joined the NATO. As a response to the
accession of Germany to NATO, the Warsaw Pact was signed on
14 May 1955 by the Soviet Union, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and East Germany, thereby
delineating the two opposing sides of the Cold War.
In August 13, 1961, the Soviets in East Germany built the Berlin
Wall to keep Western fascists from entering East Germany and
undermining the socialist state.

THE WARSAW PACT

 Commitment of each member to share the risk, responsibilities
and benefits of collective defense.
To create a unique community of values committed to the
principles of individual liberty, democracy, human rights and the
rule of law.
Members shall not enter into any international commitments that
is in conflict with the Treaty and to be committed to the purposes
and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (UN).
The principle of consensus decision-making and the importance
of consultation define the spirit of the Organization, together with
its defensive nature and its flexibility.

THE NATO PRINCIPLES

ANIMUS IN CONSULENDO LIBER- A MIND
UNFETTERED IN DELIBERATION
NATO HEADQURTERS AT BRUSSELS,
BELGIUM
NATO MEMBERS
FEB 18, 1952 May 6, 1955 May 30, 1982 March 12, March 29,2004 April 1, 2009
1999
Greece Germany Spain Czech Bulgaria Albania
Republic
Turkey Hungary Estonia Croatia
Poland Latvia
Lithuania

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

June 5, 2017- Montenegro was acceded to the organization after a

46-35 vote from its Parliament to become the 29th member of NATO.

OTHER NATO MEMBERS

 NATO Enlargement-term used for accepting of new members
Art 10 of the NATO founding treaty-The Parties may, by
unanimous agreement, invite any other European State in a
position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to
the security of the North Atlantic area to accede to this Treaty.
1.An aspiring country will be invited for accession talks by the
decision of the members. Talks will take place in Brussels to a NATO
team about political and defense policies of the country and also
their willingness to accept the terms of being a member.

ACCESSION PROCESS
2.Aspiring countries shall submit their willingness to join in a form of a
letter of intent addressed to the Sec-Gen along with the forms
required by NATO.
3.Accession protocols to be signed and ratified by member
counties according to their legislative process.
4.All member counties shall be able to ratify the accession
protocols. Once all ratified, they shall notify the United States
Government, the depository of the Washington Treaty as these
protocols become a part of the Treaty.
5. The Sec-Gen will invite the country to accede to the Treaty. The
country shall accede to the treaty according to its national
procedures.
6. After depositing its instruments of accession, the country will
become an official NATO member.
 The official languages of NATO are English and French
NATO set a guideline for contributions of members at 2% of their
defense budget. But it is not a laid down rule but just a guideline
so not meeting the guideline is not sanctioned.
The biggest contributor of NATO for 2017 is US at 3.61% of its
defense budget. Other members as Greece, Estonia, UK and
Poland were able to meet the 2% guideline.
NATO has its military budget of $1.4 billion to fund its research and
training programs and a civilian budget of $252 million to fund
the NATO headquarter at Belgium.

FUNDING AND CONTRIBUTIONS

 NATO does not possess its own army. But as the need arises,
member countries shall contribute its forces or equipment to
constitute its armed force.
However, NATO possess certain equipments such as early
warning radar aircrafts such as AWACS.
 The Permanent Representatives are the delegations of every
member for the Council taking part for the decisions of NATO.
The North Atlantic Council is the key political decision-making
body as established by Art. 9 of the Washington treaty. Decisions
are to be decided unanimously(no voting by majority or 2/3 or
votes) by all members and its decisions have the same status and
validity whatever level it meets. It is chaired by the Secretary-
General.
The Nuclear Planning Group is involved in matters concerning
nuclear arms and its control. It is composed of members from the
integrated military structure(except France) chaired by the Sec-
Gen and all discussions must also to be decided unanimously.

THE NATO ORGANIZATION

 The Secretary General chair the senior committees and decision
facilitator. He is also the spokesperson and the head of the
International staff. The Sec-Gen is elected from senior statesmen
of every country with a renewable four-year term. The current
NATO Sec-Gen is Jens Stoltenberg, former Prime Minister of
Norway, who took up his responsibilities on 1 October 2014.
Other committees aside from the main bodies as the North
Atlantic Council, Nuclear Planning Group and the Military
Committee are technical and working groups performing various
functions especially in defense procurement. They report directly
to the Council. There are currently 21 committees established
subordinate from the three main groups.
NATO SEC-GEN JENS STOLTENBERG
 The Military Committee is the senior military advisory authority and
under the authority of the NAC and NPG. It provides guidance to
the two strategic commands(ACO and ACT). Its chairman is
selected by the chiefs of staff for a three-year term. Chief
members are delegations of every NATO country from their senior
military officers. They are supported by the International Military
Staff also working at Brussels HQ.
The Allied Command Operations(ACO) is responsible for the
planning and execution of all Alliance operations. The
commands aim is to maintain the integrity of Alliance territory,
safeguard freedom of the seas and economic lifelines and
preserve or restore the security of its members. It is
headquartered at Mons, Belgium which is also the SHAPE HQ.
 The Allied Command Transformation(ACT) leads the
transformation of NATOs military structure, forces, capabilities
and doctrine. It is mainly responsible for education, training and
exercises, conducting experiments to assess new concepts and
promoting interoperability throughout NATO. It is headquartered
at Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
 Launched in 1994, it is a practical bilateral cooperation between
individual Euro-Atlantic partner countries and NATO. It allows
partners to build up an individual relationship with NATO,
choosing their own priorities for cooperation. Currently has 21
member-states.

PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE PROGRAM

 Counter-piracy operations in Africa- upon the urgent request
from AU, in 2009 NATO launched its Operation Ocean Shield to
combat piracy and armed robbery by providing surveillance
tasks and protection to vessels entering Africa. Since 2012
onwards, no successful piracy attacks were reported as a result
of the operation. It was able to suppress Somalia-based pirates
although not completely eliminated. Ocean Shield was
terminated on 15 December 2016 after having achieved its
objectives.

SOME NATO ACHIEVEMENTS

 Operation Active Endeavor- it was launched following the
terrorist attacks during the 9/11 to deter, defend and secure
against terrorist attacks in the Mediterranean. It was to protect
merchant vessels passing through an important trade route in the
world. It was successful in tracking and boarding suspect ships
and rescuing civilians from oil rigs and sinking ships.
Preventing the expansion of Soviet power especially in Europe
during the Cold War.
 Failure over the humanitarian disaster in Kosovo- NATO was not
able to prevent civilians from rioting and failed to protect
minorities during the conflict in 1998.
NATO intervention in Libya-it was launched under the mandate
of civilian protection but reports indicate that the allies true
intention is not civilian protection but a military conquest for
regime change and to execute Muammar Gaddafi.
Lack of commitment of other members to defense contributions-
Weak defense spending by European NATO members threatens
to undermine the collective security guarantee and play into
Putins hands.

NATO ISSUES AND FAILURES

 NATOs failure over Afghanistan- in Sept. 11, 2001, the infamous
9/11 attacks happened in the US causing the NATO council to
invoke the Art. 5 of its charter where an attack against one is an
attack against all. The council voted unanimously to take
command of the International Security Assistance Force(ISAF) to
battle out terrorist and insurgents in Afghanistan.
It was an initial success as it was able to drive out Taliban
insurgents out in some areas of Afghanistan and the death of the
Al-Qaeda leader, bin Laden but Taliban insurgents are still not
completely suppressed and they have de facto control over
some key areas in Afghanistan and remains of Al-Qaeda just
went to the neighboring country, Pakistan.
 Montenegros accession to NATO angers Russia, its former ally.

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