Monthly Archives: June 2021

NATO, which stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is a political and military alliance of 30 North American and European countries. The purpose of NATO is to guarantee the security and freedom of its member countries through both political and military means. In terms of politics, NATO strives to promote democratic values and enable its members to consult and cooperate on matters related to defense and security in order to solve problems, build trust, and prevent conflict.

The NATO flag consists of a white compass rose on a dark blue field, with white lines stretching out from the four points of the compass. The navy blue represents the Atlantic Ocean. The compass rose and the four white lines emanating from its points symbolize the movement towards the path of peace. The dark blue and white colors of the flag represent the shared desire of NATO member states to maintain peace. The basic design of the flag is attributed to a member of the organizations International Staff.

The whole idea of NATO revolves around the concept of collective security, which is a term used to describe countries coming together in the face of a common threat. After World War II ended, the countries of Western Europe, the United States, and Canada perceived the Soviet Union as a common threat to the basic principles of freedom and democracy that all these countries supposedly stood for. Thus, the leaders of the aforementioned countries decided to create a defensive alliance in order to counter the threat that the Soviet Union and its European satellite states posed to their countries freedom and sovereignty.

The agreement that created NATO is known as the North Atlantic Treaty, hence the organizations acronym. The treaty was signed by NATOs 12 founding members on April 4, 1949, in Washington DC, which is why the agreement is sometimes referred to as the Washington Treaty. The treaty derives its legitimacy and authority from Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which affirms the right of countries to defend themselves both individually and collectively.

Under the terms of the Washington Treaty, each member state of NATO commits to assuming the risks, responsibilities, and benefits of the collective defense that the organization provides. The treaty also states that NATOs members form a unique community with common values, which include democracy, individual liberty, human rights, and the rule of law.

NATOs commitment to the collective security of all of its members is best exemplified in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. This article stipulates that if one of the member states is attacked, that attack will be perceived by other member states as an attack on all of NATOs member states. It would be a long time, however, before this article of the treaty would actually be invoked after the first signing of the treaty. Also, Article 5 does not automatically commit NATO members to declare war when one member state is attacked. Rather, it is up to each country to decide how to respond should an attack on a fellow NATO member occur.

The idea of countries coming together to counter a common threat is not new. It has existed for about as long as there have been nation-states. History is filled with conflicts in which countries come together to protect themselves against what they perceive to be threats to their security, sovereignty, and values. The idea for the creation of NATO came shortly after WWII came to a close. The leaders of Western Europe were growing worried as they observed the Soviet Union asserting their control over the Eastern European countries that they had occupied during the war. They were concerned that the Soviet Union would soon try to impose its ideology on the rest of Europe. At the same time, the countries of Western Europe were dismantling much of their defense capabilities following the brutality of the Second World War.

In January of 1948, British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin suggested the drafting of a treaty that would create a regionally-based military alliance to provide collective security, based on the principles of the UN Charter. The US was willing to lend military support to Western Europe, but only under the condition that Western Europe was united. The European countries of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom responded to this stipulation by creating what was known as the Western Union, which was designed to strengthen ties between the five countries and provide a mechanism of mutual defense. This Western Union formed the basis for the negotiations that took place in order to establish what became NATO.

For about 40 years, NATOs main objective was to counter the threat posed by the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe, which were united under what could be described as the communist version of NATO, the Warsaw Pact. But in 1989, communism in Europe was coming to an end. The fall of the Berlin Wall represented the fall of the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe between east and west since the end of WWII. Two years later, the Soviet Union, which led the communist bloc, ceased to exist. Thus, NATO was left without an adversary. Indeed, after the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War, some wondered if NATO could endure in the absence of the threat it was made to counter.

NATO did endure. In fact, it was not during the Cold War that military forces under the banner of NATO became active, but after. In 1995, for example, NATO forces were activated in order to implement the Dayton Peace Accord that ended the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1999, the organization took military action to protect ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

Two years later, Article 5 of the Washington Treaty was invoked for the first time following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US. This led to NATOs first counterterrorism operation, which involved aircraft patrols in the skies over the US. Another counterterrorism operation was undertaken by NATO in the form of Operation Active Endeavour, which involved NATO forces patrolling the Mediterranean Sea in an effort to prevent terrorist activities that could disrupt one of the worlds busiest trade routes.

In 2003, NATO took command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, which was established after the US invasion of the country in response to the 9/11 attacks. Between 2009 and 2016, NATO was involved in counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa. In 2011, following a popular uprising in Libya against its ruler, Moammar Gadhafi, NATO forces took charge of enforcing UN resolutions to protect Libyan civilians. It began by enforcing an arms embargo and a no-fly zone in the country, but eventually undertook air and naval strikes against Libyan military forces.

As NATOs role in the world has grown, so has its membership. When the organization was founded, it had 12 member states. During the Cold War, three new countries joined the group. Turkey and Greece joined in 1952, and West Germany joined in 1955. In 1982, Spain became a member of the alliance. Thus, when the Cold War came to an end, NATOs membership had grown to 15 members.

By 2020, the number of countries that were part of NATO doubled to 30 countries. This great expansion began in 1999 when three countries that were formally part of the Warsaw Pact were admitted into the alliance. These countries were Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Five years later, seven additional countries from Eastern Europe were allowed to join. Croatia and Albania joined the alliance in 2009. The former Yugoslav republic of Montenegro would become a NATO member in 2017. In 2020, NATO welcomed its newest member, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, now known as North Macedonia.

Far from being a relic of the Cold War, NATO remains active around the world. In fact, the organization has just under 20,000 military personnel involved in NATO activities worldwide. These activities include NATOs leadership of operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and the Mediterranean Sea. They also include a training mission in Iraq, in which NATO is helping to develop the capacities of the countrys security forces. NATO also provides support to the African Union in its peacekeeping efforts. One of NATOs latest operations includes air policing in Eastern Europe. According to NATO, this air policing is being done in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Indeed, NATO claims to have intercepted a number of Russian aircraft violating the airspace of its allies.

As its operations around the world continue, NATO still strives to expand its membership. The organization even has a unique program designed to help countries that wish to join the alliance, known as the Membership Action Plan (MAP). Ten Eastern European countries were participants in this program before they became NATO members. At present, Bosnia and Herzegovina is participating in this program in the hopes of becoming a full member state of NATO in the future.

Continue reading here:
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - WorldAtlas

Still, Mr. Bidens visits to NATO on June 14 and then the European Union for brief summits, following his attendance at the Group of 7 in Britain, will be more than symbolic. The meetings are synchronized so that he can arrive in Geneva on June 16 with allied consultation and support for his first meeting as president with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

The hopeful, optimistic view is that Biden is kicking off a new relationship, showing faith in Brussels and NATO, saying the right words and kicking off the key strategic process of renovating the alliance for the next decade, said Jana Puglierin, Berlin director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. But Biden also wants to see bang for the buck, and we need to show tangible results. This is not unconditional love, but friends with benefits.

Franois Heisbourg, a French defense analyst, sees only positives from the Biden trip.

The U.S. is back, Bidens back, theres nothing cynical here, said Mr. Heisbourg, a special adviser to the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. Biden has some strong views, and he is determined to implement them. International affairs are not his priority, but his basic positioning is, Lets be friends again, to reestablish comity and civility with allies.

But eventually, Mr. Heisbourg said, policy reviews have to become policy.

Ivo H. Daalder, who was U.S. ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama, sees the whole trip as part of Were back, and important to show that alliances and partners matter, that we want to work with other countries and be nice to our friends. Even the G-7 will be like that.

But he and others note that Mr. Biden has not yet named ambassadors to either NATO or the European Union or to most European countries, for that matter let alone had them confirmed. For now, officials insist, that absence is not vital, and many of the most likely candidates are well-known.

Original post:
Biden Is Embracing Europe, but Then What? NATO and the E.U. Have Concerns. - The New York Times

WASHINGTON - Today, Human Rights First and 16 partner organizations from seven countries published a letter calling on governments to act urgently to protect Afghan locally employed civilians (LECs) of NATO member states. With the imminent completion of the withdrawal of NATO and U.S. forces, Human Rights First and its partners call on NATO member states to provide immediate protection to Afghan staff and their families who are facing threats due to their affiliation with member states.

Our collective security rests on our nations doing right by our Afghan allies who put so much faith in us over the last two decades, said Chris Purdy, Director of the Veterans for American Ideals, a project of Human Rights First. We cannot abandon them without consequence, we would lose so much if we do. This is our responsibility, we must act now.

In the letter, Human Rights First and its partners note that threats against Afghan employees are increasing in light of the ongoing withdrawal. The organizations demand that NATO member states must apply flexible criteria for relocation schemes in light of the threats that LECs face, increase processing of relocation requests, and evacuate LECs when required by the security situation and volume of requests.

The signatory organizations are human rights advocates, advocates for Afghan interpreters, and trade associations for translators and interpreters. They work in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally.

Click here to read signatory organizations statements.

See the original post:
Advocacy Groups Call on NATO Member States to Protect Afghan Civilians During Withdrawal of Forces - Human Rights First

B-52 aircraft deployed to Europe flew over all NATO nations in a single day, the second time in less than a year that U.S. bombers have flown this show of strength over the continent and North America.

The B-52s, which are deployed to Moron Air Base, Spain, flew over all 30 allied nations May 31, integrating with more than 20 allied militaries across two combatant commands as part of Operation Allied Sky, according to a U.S. European Command release.

The first leg of the mission included a flyover of all NATO nations in Europe, during which bombers conducted aerial refueling and flew with several ally aircraft. In the second leg, stateside-based bombers flew with U.S. and Canadian aircraft. The release did not specify how many B-52s participated.

Bomber missions demonstrate the credibility of our forces to address a global security environment that is more diverse and uncertain than at any other time in our history, said Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, NATO Allied Air Command and U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander, said in the release. Todays mission is an awesome demonstration of NATO air superiority and together there is no challenge we cannot tackle.

In August 2020, six B-52s conducted a similar mission. Four bombers, deployed to RAF Fairford, United Kingdom, flew over all European member nations while two B-52s from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, flew over the U.S. and Canada.

See the article here:
B-52s Fly Over All NATO Nations for Second Time - Air Force Magazine

The Black Sea Fleet in exercises.

Moscow was sure it could break its main enemy and still avoid the outbreak of a full-scale nuclear apocalypse.

During the Cold War era, two rival superpowers - the USSR and the U.S. - were at any second ready for the outbreak of a hot war between them. Everybody was sure World War III would be the nuclear one and would ensure a mutually assured destruction (MAD).

However, in 1979, the Soviets developed a plan on how to crush their bitterest enemy and avoid the general nuclear apocalypse. The Seven Days to the River Rhine plan(which was only made public by the Polish Defense Ministry in 2005) promised that NATO forces in Europe would be smashed in just a week.

A Military Parade on Red Square to celebrate the fifty-fifth anniversary of the October revolution.

Moscow believed that NATO would strike first. According to the plan, the alliance would nuke 25 objects in Poland along the Vistula River with nuclear bombs, turning the country into a devastated polluted area and effectively cutting off the Soviet troops in Eastern Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia from its main bases in the USSR.

This, however, would immediately trigger the Warsaw Pact into action. Soviet nuclear forces would strike Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and northern Italy. Thus, the NATO headquarters in Brussels would be destroyed.

Combat exercises of Guards paratroopers.

By not nuking the U.S., France and the United Kingdom the Soviets wanted to create division between the Western allies. They knew that not NATO general command, but the U.S., French and British leadership decided separately how and when to use their nuclear weapons. By such a maneuver, the USSR would give them a hard choice: whether to use their nuclear weapons against the Soviets and be certainly nuked in return, to fight with no use of nuclear capabilities or even to stay outside the conflict. With Frances complicated relations with NATO, which it left in 1966 (although continuing to cooperate with it), such a perspective wasnt quite unbelievable.

After the nuclear strikes were done, the Soviet and Czechoslovakian armies planned to break through the enemy lines towards the River Rhine. Since, in tanks, they outnumbered the alliance several times, they were sure of success. At the same time, the neutral, but strategically important Austria, had to be also attacked and occupied by the Hungarians.

While Soviet landing parties would capture important bridges over rivers, the Warsaw Pact aviation was destined to terminate NATOs european airfields and military bases.

The important mission was entrusted to the Soviet Navy. Its task was no less than cutting all communications between the United States and Europe in the Atlantic and preventing Americans from sending reinforcements to its allies. Soviet submarines would hunt down and destroy the U.S. main trump card - aircraft carrier strike groups. Meanwhile, Soviet nuclear submarines in the Arctic Ocean had to be ready to respond to a possible nuclear strike by the U.S.

Moscow believed that if everything went according to the plan, the main NATO forces in Europe would be crushed during seven days. If necessary, the Soviet Army would continue its advance towards France. The shocked and distracted leadership of the Western countries would have no choice but to sit at the negotiation table and the full-scale nuclear war could be avoided.

Combat exercises of Guards paratroopers.

The Soviet command completely ignored the collective defense doctrine of NATO, proclaimed in the 1949 The North Atlantic Treaty, which stated that an attack of one member of the alliance was an attack on all of them. NATO was ready to escalate the full-scale nuclear war in the event of just one member state getting nuked, no matter if it possessed its own nuclear weapons or not.

Even the closest Soviet allies in the Warsaw Pact considered the Seven Days to the River Rhine plan too optimistic and almost impossible to carry out. Still, the Soviets held secret drills based on this plan for 10 years until the late 1980s.

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How the Soviet Union planned to crush NATO in a week - Russia Beyond