A promise to protect and defend
75 years ago a group of countries formed NATO.
On 4 April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was created. It is an alliance (an agreement to work together) between countries that promise to keep every member safe and defend each other. NATO started out with 12 members, including the UK and the US. In the 75 years since it was established, it has become much bigger and is now made up of 32 countries. The latest NATO member, Sweden, joined on 7 March this year.
Why was NATO set up?
NATO was created four years after the Second
World War (1939–1945). The Soviet Union (a group of countries that was led by Russia) was trying to extend its influence in Europe. This worried the
US, as well as many western European countries, because they did not agree with the Soviet Union’s ideas, rules or way of life. There were also other aims in setting up the organisation, including getting European countries to work together politically.
How does NATO work?
At the heart of NATO is an agreement known as the North Atlantic Treaty. The treaty contains a list of 14 Articles (rules) that the countries agree to follow. An important rule is Article 5, which says that an attack on any member country is an “attack on them all”. In other words, member countries must help any country that is being attacked. This means if a country challenges a NATO country, it could end up having to fight all of them.
Although the cost of its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, is paid for by member countries, most of NATO’s funding is the money countries spend on their own armed forces. The organisation does not have its own military force. Members are supposed to spend
a certain amount on their armed forces, depending on how rich they are. This means each country pays a different amount, although not all countries are currently paying what they are supposed to.
What has NATO done?
NATO didn’t actually fight in a war for 45 years after it was created. Much of this time was taken up with the “Cold War” – a period of extreme tension between NATO countries and the Soviet Union. Then, in
1994, NATO took action during a war in a European country called Bosnia and Herzegovina. It also got involved following 9/11, a series of terrorist attacks against the US on 11 September 2001. After 9/11, several countries, led by the US, invaded Afghanistan because many terrorists were based there. NATO forces later took over the military operation there and every member country sent troops to help.
What’s next for NATO?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 worried lots of countries in Europe. The threat posed by Russia made Sweden and Finland want to boost their security by joining NATO. Ukraine also wants to join. Russian leader Vladimir Putin doesn’t want Ukraine to join NATO because that would bring NATO very close to Russia. However, NATO has said that Ukraine will be allowed to join once its war with Russia is over. NATO wants to wait until the war is over because if Ukraine was a member, NATO would have to send troops to join in and help. If this happened the war could quickly become much bigger and involve most of the countries in Europe.