What is NATO: history, organization, functions

An organization bound together by the North Atlantic Treaty (abbreviated NATO), which also has the name of the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance. NATO, which consists of 28 states bordering the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean (namely Canada, the United States, Turkey and the majority of the members of the European Union), was established to protect its freedoms. In its treaty signed in Washington on April 4, 1949 and justifying what NATO is, it is indicated that an armed attack on one of the alliance's members should be seen as an attack on all.

The North Atlantic Alliance stands for the rule of law, democracy, individual freedom, peaceful settlement of disputes and promotes such values in the Euro-Atlantic area. The headquarters is in Brussels, Belgium.

So, what is NATO? This is a forum in which the countries of Europe and North America have the opportunity to consult each other on security issues of mutual interest and to take joint measures to address these issues. In recent years, NATO's goal has expanded and now includes protection from weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and cyberattacks. The fight against terrorism was included in the alliance's priority goals after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001, which is considered an attack on the United States.

To better understand what NATO is, let's turn to history. The military bloc was created after the Second World War ended, within the framework of the United Nations. Its main goal was to protect the member countries from a large number of troops of the communist countries. Further, the history of NATO developed during the Cold War, when the organization's mission expanded to prevent Nuclear war. After joining the bloc of Western Germany, the communist countries, including the USSR, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany, formed an alliance of the Warsaw Pact. In response, NATO adopted a policy of massive retaliation, promising to use nuclear weapons in the event of an attack.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and after the collapse of the USSR, NATO-Russia relations began to be based on bilateral cooperation. In 2002, the creation of the Russia-NATO Council took place to regulate general security issues. The highest priority of the alliance Became a mission in Afghanistan. For the success of the peacekeeping mission, the organization even asked for help from its main competitor, Russia.

Over the years, NATO has become stronger and strengthened ties between members. The treaty itself served as the basis and model for other international collective security agreements . Today, the question of what NATO is, one can say with certainty: this is one of the most successful defensive alliances of all time, which currently affects the scenario of various world changes. Our future world is filled with known and unknown threats. NATO can act as a beacon on the high seas of various dangers.