All About NATO
All About NATO
A basic introduction to NATO
If you’re relatively new to the issues related to Kremlin propaganda and how it’s affecting other countries (including the United States), I recommend reading some background posts I wrote that explains things in more detail along with links to other sites where you can read more to educate yourself.
You might wonder if making a very basic introductory post about NATO is even necessary. I remember learning about NATO in high school social studies class. Everyone knows what NATO is and what it stands for, right?
Well, guess again. I came across this recent video where someone in Donald Trump's MAGA movement literally admitted that she does not know what NATO is or what it does after she stated that she doesn't like NATO. The relevant section starts at the 3:37 mark.
The Kremlin propagandists are taking advantage of some people's ignorance to spew out stuff that has no basis in facts at all. Here is a basic primer on what is NATO and what it really does or does not do.
What is NATO?
NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is an intergovernmental alliance of over 32 countries.
What does NATO do?
It is a collective security system where each member of the alliance agree to defend each other against third parties. For example, let's say that Russia decides to invade Poland, which is a member of NATO. The other NATO countries are obligated to come to Poland's defense to help drive out the Russians.
When was NATO established?
It was established on April 4, 1949. This year is NATO's 75th anniversary.
Why was it established in the first place?
The first half of the 20th century was dominated by two major wars—World War I and World War II. Both wars affected several countries on several continents and it led to the deaths of millions of men, women, and children.
World War II had recently ended but a new Cold War had emerged between the Soviet Union and the West. There were fears that it could lead to an actual hot war once again. The idea of NATO was to provide enough of a major deterrence so that the Soviet Union or any other non-NATO country would be discouraged from trying to start a new world war.
How does it work?
Basically there's Article 5 of the original North Atlantic Treaty, which led to the formation of NATO. Article 5 basically says that if one nation is attacked, all of the member nations are obligated to help that nation. Basically an attack on one NATO member is considered to be an attack on all NATO members.
Has Article 5 ever been invoked?
Yes. It was invoked for the first and only time after the terrorist attacks in the United States by Al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001. Member states sent troops to Afghanistan (whose Taliban regime was sheltering Al-Qaeda and had refused to extradite its members to the US for prosecution).
Which countries are members of NATO?
The full list can be found here.
Sometimes I see the acronym NATO OTAN. What does OTAN mean?
OTAN is the acronym for the organization's French name. It stands for Organisation du Traité de l'Atlantique Nord.
Are there other international organizations similar to NATO?
There are three similar organizations. Two of them are now-defunct. One is SEATO, which stood for the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. It was set up as an Asian equivalent of NATO and it was originally created to block communist gains in Southeast Asia. SEATO collapsed in 1977 due to too much internal conflict between the member nations.
The other is the Warsaw Pact. This was created by the Soviet Union in response to the creation of NATO. The Warsaw Pact consisted of the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe. It was similar to NATO in that an attack on one Warsaw Pact country was considered to be an attack on all Warsaw Pact countries and each member country was obligated to help that nation. The Warsaw Pact was used by the Soviet Union to launch an invasion of Warsaw Pact member nation Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Warsaw Pact began to collapse in 1989 with the Revolutions of 1989. The Warsaw Pact finally disbanded in 1991 shortly before the Soviet Union collapsed.
The third such organization is the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which consists of Russia and the smaller former Soviet republics. It was formed after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Like the others, the CTSO also has a requirement where, if one member state is attacked, the other member states are obligated to defend that country. While the CSTO still exists, there has been squabbles in recent years between the member countries due to the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Why didn't NATO collapse when the Cold War ended like the Warsaw Pact did?
After the Cold War ended NATO was reconceived as a cooperative security organization whose mandate was to include two main objectives: to foster dialogue and cooperation with former adversaries in the Warsaw Pact and to manage conflicts on the European periphery, such as the Balkans.
Why has so many former Warsaw Pact members (such as Poland) and former Soviet republics (such as the ones in the Baltic region) decided to join NATO in recent years?
Many of the countries that have opted for NATO membership have major trust issues with Russia, which is understandable given their past dealings with the Soviet Union and, before that, the Russian Empire. They want security against ever being dominated by Russia ever again.
Why is Vladimir Putin claiming that NATO betrayed Russia?
Putin claimed that in 1990 then-US Secretary of State Howard Baker had promised then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand in the east if the Soviet Union accepted German reunification. However Gorbachev later said that the topic of NATO expansion was not discussed at all in his meetings with Baker.
Did NATO have anything to do with the 2014 Maidan Revolution/The Revolution of Dignity that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich?
No. Contrary to what the Kremlin propagandists like to claim, that event was spurred by the Ukrainian people themselves with no direct help or intervention from NATO at all.
Is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a NATO puppet that was installed by NATO?
No. President Zelenskyy was elected by a vast majority of the Ukrainian people. NATO had nothing to do with that election.
Is the war in Ukraine little more than a US/NATO proxy war with Russia?
No. Russia was the one who started this whole thing back in 2014 with its annexation of Crimea and its encouragement of separatist movements in the Donbass region. When there was little pushback from the international community, Russia decided to up the ante with starting its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The fact that Ukraine is currently not a NATO member was even more enticing Putin to consider invading it without having to worry about other countries immediately sending troops to fight Russia.
The main objective of this invasion is to forcibly reunite Ukraine with Russia. NATO and the US had nothing to do with this. NATO is strictly a defense organization. It does not engage in invading and conquering other countries like what Russia is doing with Ukraine. Ukraine has frequently said that the war could end tomorrow if Russia were to stop its invasion, completely withdraw all of its troops, and return Crimea and the Donbass region to Ukraine.
Is NATO helping Ukraine in its war against Russia?
No. Or at least not on an official level because Ukraine is currently not a NATO member. However individual countries who are NATO members have provided help to Ukraine ranging from weapons to training of Ukrainian military personnel to humanitarian aid to civilians affected by the war.
Is NATO involved in the war in Gaza?
No. Neither Israel nor Palestine are NATO members.
Why is Donald Trump's Make America Great Again movement so hostile towards NATO?
Donald Trump has been against NATO for years, beginning with his 2016 campaign where he said that he felt that NATO is obsolete. More recently he has said that, if elected president again, he would not defend NATO members that don’t meet defense spending targets and he also said that he would tell Russia to attack NATO allies that he considered to be delinquent. Trump has even considered withdrawing the US completely from NATO and he came very close to doing so when he was president. Of course that anti-NATO attitude has been adopted by his most staunch followers in the MAGA movement.
Then there is Vladimir Putin, whom Trump is said to completely idolize. It wouldn't be surprising if Putin convinced Trump that NATO is bad and Trump is too deferential to Putin to even consider any other opinions or options regarding NATO.
That's it for a basic introduction to NATO. If you want to learn more about this organization, check out the links below.
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