Part 4: What Is NATO?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance and collective security system where the members pledge to defend each other against outside attacks. NATO has legal basis in the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty (also known as the Washington Treaty), which derives its authority from Article 51 of the United Nations Charter stating that independent countries have the right to form a collective defense.

The founding members include the United States, Canada, and ten European members. As of 2023, the alliance expanded to thirty members, including the U.K., France, Germany, Romania, and Poland. Russia and China are not members of NATO. As of 2023, four states are in the process of formally joining NATO: Ukraine, Georgia, Sweden, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

History of NATO

The NATO alliance was founded after World War II in response to Western fears that the Soviet Union would expand or attack European countries. Leaders also believed that a collective military alliance would prevent a future threat from Germany and stave off another catastrophic war.

What is Article 5?

The original North Atlantic Treaty includes 14 articles outlining the conditions for mutual defense. Article 5 is the most well-known of the 14 articles. The article states that an attack declared against one of the thirty countries is an attack against all thirty. In such a scenario, member states must come to the defense of the targeted member state. However, NATO itself does not have its own standing military. Instead, its member countries contribute their forces and resources to create an integrated command structure.

NATO operates as an intergovernmental organization in which member states contribute resources necessary for its function, similar to the United Nations. Each member country contributes to the organization’s budget. This contribution is calculated based on an agreed-upon cost-sharing formula which amounts to roughly less than one percent of each state’s own defense budget.

Article 5 has only been invoked once in the history of the organization. NATO invoked the article following the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. It has not been used in a large-scale war against Germany or Russia.

NATO and Nuclear Weapons

NATO considers nuclear weapons a critical part of its deterrence and defense capabilities. This means nuclear weapons used to deter potential threats and could be used to defend a country, if it is attacked. In 2022, NATO updated its Strategic Concept, a document defining security challenges to NATO and outlining strategies to address them. This document included a pledge to move towards a nuclear weapon free world. However, this does not mean that NATO countries will dismantle their nuclear weapons.

The Strategic Concept also stated that NATO would remain a nuclear alliance as long as nuclear weapons exist. This nuclear alliance manifests in two ways: first, the United States has stationed a portion of its nuclear arsenal in Europe on NATO ally bases and second, the commitment by NATO members with nuclear weapons, such as the U.S., U.K., and France, that their weapons can be used to defend another NATO member.

NATO and Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO-Russia relations have alternated between being amicable and tense. In 2002, the NATO-Russia Council was created as a forum for the two to cooperate on security issues. This partnership lasted until tensions rose following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, resulting in the NATO-Russia Council suspending all cooperation. Diplomatic missions were still ongoing until a complete freeze of the relationship in October 2021. NATO allies border Russia and Ukraine, and there has been ongoing tension about Ukraine’s desire to join NATO. The Russian government sees this potential expansion as a security risk, because Ukraine’s admittance would increase the number of NATO countries that directly border Russia. This unease has only risen as NATO allies continue to send military aid to Ukraine following the February 2022 invasion.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO released its 2022 Strategic Concept, which explicitly listed the Russian federation as the most significant threat to NATO. The document stated that Russia’s expanding nuclear forces can destabilize the East and South and disrupt NATO’s capability of sending reinforcements across the North Atlantic. The Strategic Concept asserted that NATO will strengthen nuclear deterrence and defense for Allies to rebuff Russian aggression. However, the 2022 Strategic Document also maintained that it will keep communication channels with Russia open to mitigate escalation and increase transparency.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has pushed some states to join NATO. Sweden’s major political parties in 2022 were alarmed by Russian aggression and submitted an application to NATO later that year. Finland also cites the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a turning point in its neutrality and joined NATO in April 2023.

Sweden and Finland are not the only governments looking toward NATO during this time. Although Ukraine has historically been hesitant to join NATO due to Russia’s sensitivity to the organization, they officially submitted an application in September 2022. Ukraine’s application has been pending due to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty stating that going to war with one NATO state means going to war with all NATO states. Since Ukraine is currently in conflict with Russia, there are concerns that Ukraine’s new NATO status would escalate the war.