NATO

NATO

(Blue are NATO Member Countries)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO. French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 North American and European countries. The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's Headquarters are located in Evere, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.  Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30. The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020. NATO currently recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring members.  An additional 20 countries participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global total. Members agreed that their aim is to reach or maintain the target defense spending of at least 2% of GDP by 2024.

Military operations:   No military operations were conducted by NATO during the Cold War. Following the end of the Cold War, the first operations, Anchor Guard in 1990 and Ace Guard in 1991, were prompted by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Airborne early warning aircraft were sent to provide coverage of southeastern Turkey, and later a quick-reaction force was deployed to the area.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Intervention: 1992-2004   

Kosovo Intervention: 1999-Present Day

War in Afghanistan: 2001-Present Day

Iraq Training Mission: 2004-2011

Gulf of Aden Anti-Piracy: 2009-2016

Libya Intervention: 2011

Member Countries:  Of the 30 member countries, two are located in North America (Canada and the United States), 27 are in Europe, and one is in Europe and Asia (Turkey). All members have militaries, except for Iceland which does not have a typical army (but does, however, have a coast guard and a small unit of civilian specialists for NATO operations). Three of NATO's members are nuclear weapons states: France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NATO has 12 original founding member nation states, and from 18 February 1952 to 6 May 1955, it added three more member nations, and a fourth on 30 May 1982. After the end of the Cold War, NATO added 14 more member nations (10 former Warsaw Pact members and four former Yugoslav republics) from 12 March 1999 to 27 March 2020.

Founding Members: 1949: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France (left 1966-2009), Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States

Other Members:

West Germany (joined in 1955 and merged with East Germany in 1990)

Greece (joined in 1952. Left 1974-1980)

Spain (Joined NATO: 1982)

Turkey: (Joined NATO: 1952)

Formerly Part Of The Warsaw Pact:

Albania (Warsaw Pact: 1955-1968 Joined NATO: 2008)

Bulgaria (Warsaw Pact: 1955-1991 Joined NATO: 2004)

The Czech Republic (Warsaw Pact as Czechoslovakia: 1955-1991. Joined NATO: 1999)

Estonia (Warsaw Pact as Soviet Union: 1955-1991. Joined NATO: 2004)

East Germany (Warsaw Pact: 1956-1990. Joined when reunited with West Germany in 1990.)

Hungary (Warsaw Pact: 1955-1991. Joined NATO: 1999)

Latvia (Warsaw Pact as Soviet Union: 1955-1991. Joined NATO: 2004)

Lithuania (Warsaw Pact as Soviet Union: 1955-1991. Joined NATO: 2004)

Poland (Warsaw Pact: 1955-1991. Joined NATO: 1999)

Romania (Warsaw Pact: 1955-1991. Joined NATO: 2004)

Slovakia (Warsaw Pact as Czechoslovakia: 1955-1991. Joined NATO: 2004) 

Formerly Non-Aligned Communist:

 Croatia (as Yugoslavia: 1945-1991. Joined NATO: 2009)

Montenegro (as Yugoslavia: 1945-1991. Joined NATO: 2017)

North Macedonia (as Yugoslavia: 1945-1991. Joined NATO: 2020)

Slovenia (as Yugoslavia: 1945-1991. Joined NATO: 2004)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO