After World War II, the Soviet Union gained power and forcefully spread communism into neighbouring countries like Germany and Czechoslovakia. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was created as a unified front amongst Western nations against Soviet aggression. This alliance also sought to prevent future wars and devastation. At its outset in 1949, there were 12 original NATO members (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States). Today, there are 28 members. One of the most important aspects of NATO is its mutual defence pact. This states that any attack on a member country is viewed as an attack on them all. This agreement was especially important during the Cold War, when it helped prevent nuclear conflict. The knowledge that another member of NATO would retaliate to nuclear aggression was a key aspect of the Cold War’s “mutually assured destruction”. After the Cold War, NATO continued to be a vital political alliance, with a focus on global security. Today, the organisation works very closely with the European Union and the United Nations. NATO is involved in peacekeeping missions across places like Afghanistan, Kosovo, and various regions in Africa. They manage ground, air, and naval operations for surveillance, training, logistic, and other crisis-management purposes. The most recent NATO activity has been in Ukraine, after Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula. NATO has since increased air policing missions in the area, and boosted support for neighbouring countries like the Baltic States.

Since NATO’s members include the US, and several other prosperous nations, NATO has significant resources. The combined wealth of NATO members is more than 30 trillion US dollars and their combined manpower totals more than 7 million troops. NATO’s military spending accounts for about 70% of the World’s military spending. So, NATO is a really powerful alliance. And the threat of Russian territorial expansion may not be the worst of NATO’s problems. According to the NATO website, the “defining threats of the first half of the 21st century” comes from “nation-state failure and violent extremism”. The only solution to these problems, according to NATO, is vigorously coordinated international response.

NATO Member Countries:

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What is NATO? And how powerful is NATO?