{"id":1445,"date":"2021-02-10T10:11:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T10:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atauk.org\/?p=1445"},"modified":"2022-09-19T20:41:32","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T20:41:32","slug":"what-is-nato-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atauk.org\/index.php\/2021\/02\/10\/what-is-nato-for\/","title":{"rendered":"What is NATO for?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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It's obvious from news coverage that NATO deals with defence. After all, news stories about NATO always feature images of the armed forces. But what is NATO actually for? Taking that question literally provides an interesting answer.<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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<\/p>\n

During the Cold War, it was easy to explain and to understand what NATO did: it was there to defend against and to deter Warsaw Pact aggression.  Not everyone agreed with it – or necessarily felt that it was going about it in the best way – but the role was clear.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to the present day, and NATO has risen to a succession of challenges, and a continuously changing security environment.  The confrontation of the Cold War was followed by an energetic period of co-operation among former adversaries as the Euro-Atlantic security architecture adjusted to the end of the Warsaw Pact and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.  NATO also turned its hand to leading peacekeeping forces in the Balkans and then Afghanistan, confronting piracy off the Horn of Africa, patrolling the Mediterranean to prevent transfers of weapons of mass destruction, and much else besides.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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NATO's Beginning<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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NATO was founded in 1949 to show a united front against the Soviet Union which did not demobilize its armed forces after the Second World War, and which was increasingly threatening elected governments across Western Europe.\u00a0 The Alliance was also seen as a means of encouraging European cooperation, and ensuring that the United States maintained a strong, reassuring presence in Western Europe.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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It isn\u2019t the only organization able to deliver on certain aspects of security \u2013 the United Nations, the OSCE, and the European Union immediately spring to mind \u2013 but no NATO member could, hand-on-heart, say that any other body is more vital to their own security. \u00a0Even if one or two of them might prefer otherwise\u2026<\/p>\n

But despite NATO\u2019s commendable agility in adapting to new circumstances, the question keeps cropping up: what is NATO for?<\/p>\n

Usually, answers to that question are quite long, because they focus on what NATO\u00a0does<\/em>.\u00a0 For a shorter answer that might surprise people with only a passing (and therefore perfectly normal) interest in NATO, take the original question literally: \u201cWhat is NATO\u00a0for<\/em>?\u201d \u2013 as opposed to, \u201cWhat is NATO\u00a0against<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The point is that NATO isn\u2019t defined by what it is\u00a0against,\u00a0<\/em>but by what it is\u00a0for.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>And that\u2019s easy to answer, because it\u2019s right there in the Treaty, in the very first paragraph:\u00a0 the Parties \u201care determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It is that commitment to shared values that underpins the Alliance.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t open to countries that don\u2019t share them, and even though the odd member might occasionally look a little wobbly on the values front, the Alliance as a whole is defined by its commitment to democracy, liberty, and rule of law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That commitment guides NATO\u2019s actions and is the framework for its adaptation to whatever challenges it faces.\u00a0 So, what is NATO is for? \u00a0For the defence of a community of North American and European nations with a shared belief in democratic values.<\/p>\n

How it does that, is a different question.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Warsaw Pact<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Warsaw Treaty Organization \u2013 known in the West mainly as the \u201cWarsaw Pact\u201d \u2013 was founded in 1955 by the Soviet Union and its Central and Eastern European satellite states.\u00a0 The two \u201cblocs\u201d \u2013 Eastern and Western \u2013 were ideologically opposed, and existed in a state of armed tension \u2013 the Cold War \u2013 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the formal dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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ATA UK 10 February 2021<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s worth taking that question literally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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Hobbs","author_link":"https:\/\/atauk.org\/index.php\/author\/david\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Explainers<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"It's worth taking that question 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