North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or Washington Treaty, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 European (28) and North American (2) countries.

In 2017 and 2020 Montenegro and North Macedonia joined NATO as 29th and 30th member of this group respectively.

The Treaty of Brussels, signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom, is considered the precursor to the NATO agreement.

The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949 in Washington.

The self-declared mission of NATO when it emerged in 1949, had three points:

1) Deterring Soviet expansionism.
2) Forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent.
3) Encouraging European political integration.

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.



Article 5 of the treaty proclaims that an armed attack against one or more of them (NATO members) shall be considered an attack against them all and that following such an attack, each ally would take such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force in response.

NATO has only once invoked Article 5, on September 12, 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in the US.

NATO's Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.

· · ·

· · ·

· · ·