Institutional structure

NATO's chief body is the Council of Foreign Ministers (who have representatives in permanent session). There is an international secretariat in Brussels, Belgium, and also a Military Committee consisting of the Chiefs of Staff. The military headquarters SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe) is in Chièvres, near Mons, Belgium. In August 1999, George Robertson, then the UK defence secretary, was elected secretary general of NATO, replacing Javier Solana.

Both the Supreme Allied Commanders (Europe and Atlantic) are from the USA, but there is also an Allied Commander, Channel (a British admiral). In 1960 a permanent multinational Allied Mobile Force (AMF) was established with headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany, to move immediately to any NATO country under threat of attack. In May 1991, a meeting of NATO defence ministers endorsed the creation of a UK-commanded, 100,000-strong ‘rapid-reaction corps’ as the core of a new, streamlined military structure, based on mobile, multinational units adaptable to post-Cold War contingencies. The new force was to be used solely inside NATO territory, unless otherwise agreed by all members of the alliance. In 1992 it was agreed that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would in future authorize all NATO's military responses within Europe.

The Cold War

NATO was formed at the start of the Cold War, at a time when the capitalist nations of the West were fearful of the potential for a communist Soviet invasion of Western Europe following the Berlin blockade (1948-49) by Soviet forces. The Soviet leader Joseph Stalin appeared to harbour expansionist ambitions and to be intent on forcing his rule on to the whole of Europe, not just the eastern portion that the Soviets had conquered in World War II. In response to the establishment of NATO, Stalin set up the Warsaw Pact in 1955 as the defensive alliance of the communist Eastern bloc nations.

Throughout the Cold War, NATO had at its disposal the combined military force of all its members, including the nuclear weapons of the USA, the UK, and France. But throughout this time, not a shot was fired in war. This fact is viewed as a great success by NATO's supporters, as it indicates that NATO acted as a strong deterrent to the perceived ambitions of the USSR in Europe.

NATO has encountered numerous problems since its inception over such issues as the dominant position of the USA, the presence in Europe of US nuclear weapons, burden sharing, and standardization of weapons.

After the Cold War

The collapse of communism in eastern Europe from 1989 prompted the most radical review of NATO's policy and defence strategy since its inception in 1949. After the Warsaw Pact was disbanded in 1991, an adjunct to NATO, the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), was established. This included all the former Soviet republics, with the aim of building greater security in Europe.

At the 1994 Brussels summit a ‘partnership for peace’ (PFP) programme was formally launched, inviting former members of the Warsaw Pact and ex-Soviet republics to take part in a wide range of military cooperation arrangements, including training alongside NATO members and opening up defence plans. Romania was the first to join, followed by Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia the following year. By 1996 the partnership included 27 countries, comprising the 15 former Soviet republics, Austria, Hungary, the Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, Malta, Albania, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Finland, and Sweden.

In May 1997, a NATO-Russia security pact, called the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security, was signed in Paris by all 16 NATO heads of government and Russian president Yeltsin. The charter gave Russia an assurance that NATO had no intention of siting nuclear weapons or allowing major troop deployments on the territories of new Eastern European member states. It also created a Russian-NATO advisory council, which, however, would have no veto over NATO actions.

In July 1997, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, who were former members of the Warsaw Pact, were invited to join the alliance, which they did at the Madrid summit in March 1999. The decision meant NATO's territory expanded by 14%.

The Balkans

NATO engaged in its first major combat action August-September 1995 in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In December, a 60,000-strong, NATO-led ‘International Implementation Force’ was sent to police the Dayton peace settlement. The USA supplied one-third of the troops for the mission, termed ‘Joint Endeavour’. In June 1999, NATO mounted the biggest military operation in Europe since World War II, when its forces took over the Serbian province of Kosovo to keep the peace in the region.

France

On 29 March 1966, French president Charles de Gaulle announced that from 1 July France would withdraw from the combined central command structures of NATO, while remaining officially a part of the alliance. De Gaulle also forced all NATO facilities to leave French soil. This action was the most serious breach in the united front of the Western allies during the Cold War. It proved to be a technical matter rather than a true split, and reflected France's more independent foreign policy. De Gaulle saw France as the equal of the two superpowers, the USA and USSR, and refused to allow any appearance of French subservience to the USA. France remained an integral part of the Western alliance, but was able to give the impression of action independent from the USA and NATO. France rejoined the decision-making military committee (remaining outside the integrated structure) in 1995.

Expansion

The invitation to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to join the alliance, issued by NATO's secretary general, Javier Solana, in July 1997, signalled the biggest single expansion in NATO's history. In December 1997, the 1949 Washington Treaty was amended to allow these countries to join. The US Senate voted in early May 1998 by a large majority to approve their inclusion. The vote was a foreign policy victory for President Clinton who had carefully steered the policy of NATO expansion through an initially sceptical political establishment. The vote made the USA the fifth country to ratify NATO expansion. In March 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic became official members of NATO, bringing with them a joint population totalling 60 million and armed forces of 382,000.

Kosovo

Communication broke down between NATO and the Russian Federation during the 1999 war in Kosovo, but was resumed in February 2000 when George Robertson made the first formal visit to Moscow for four years. Ties between NATO and China were also severed during NATO's 1999 campaign of air strikes in Kosovo, when the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed. In order to try to repair relations, the US Central Intelligence Office dismissed one and reprimanded six of its managers in April 2000.

The human-rights organization Amnesty International issued a report in June 2000 which accused NATO of committing serious violations of the conventions of war during its bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999. The report accused NATO of mass killings of civilians as a result of air raids. Only five days previously, the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague had said that there was no basis for opening an investigation into war crimes committed by NATO during the 1999 bombing campaign, as there had been no deliberate targeting of civilians.

documents

Gruenther, Alfred: NATO, A Thriving Success

weblinks

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization