NATO

The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is a mutual defense treaty established after World War II by ten European countries and the U.S. and Canada. The 1949 treaty established a military alliance in response to an attack by any external party. The headquarters of NATO are in Brussels, Belgium. Since its establishment, an additional 19 countries joined, and Sweden is likely to join shortly, bringing the total to 32. The NATO alliance is also known by its French acronym, OTAN.

During the 1990s, NATO took on a peacekeeping role. NATO forces, composed of troops volunteered by member states, operated as peacekeepers in Bosnia in the 1990s and bombed Serbia in 1999 to protect Kosovo. The NATO alliance still has troops in Kosovo.

While NATO had long held concerns about possible attacks by Russia, the actual first invocation of the common defense article was in response to the 9/11 Attack. NATO supported the immediate attack on Afghanistan, but did not endorse the Iraq War; the refusal to do so offended American neoconservatives.

In 2023, as a result of Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, Finland (with its 800-mile border with Russia) abandoned longstanding policies of neutrality and joined NATO. As a result of the same war, Sweden is also seeking membership but is currently being blocked mainly by Turkey (a unanimous vote is required to admit new member states). On July 11, it was announced as the NATO summit takes place that Turkey would allow Sweden to join NATO after all.

Since 2014, Jens Stoltenberg has been the secretary general of NATO; he is a former Norwegian prime minister and agreed in 2023 to extend his mandate until October 2024.

His reappointment takes the contentious issue of who would succeed him off the table at the summit, after weeks during which the names of several possible contenders were floated.

NATO Allies

NATO has 31 member countries, called NATO Allies, in 2023. Each country is a sovereign state, and through NATO, they discuss political and security issues and make collective decisions by consensus. A map of NATO countries can be viewed on the New York Times website.

Click on a column header to sort the table by that item.

¹ISO 3166 ALPHA-3 code

No	Name	Short1	Year	Capital
1	Albania	ALB	2009	Tirana
2	Belgium	BEL	1949	Brussels
3	Bulgaria	BGR	2004	Sofia
4	Canada	CAN	1949	Ottowa
5	Croatia	HRV	2009	Zagreb
6	Czechia	CZE	1999	Prague
7	Denmark	DNK	1949	Copenhagen
8	Estonia	EST	2004	Tallinn
9	Finland	FIN	2023	Helsinki
10	France	FRA	1949	Paris, France
11	Germany	DEU	1955	Berlin
12	Greece	GRC	1951	Athens
13	Hungary	HUN	1999	Budapest
14	Iceland	ISL	1949	Reykjavik
15	Italy	ITA	1949	Rome
16	Latvia	LVA	2004	Riga
17	Lithuania	LTU	2004	Vilnius
18	Luxembourg	LUX	1949	?
19	Montenegro	MNE	2017	Podgorica
20	Netherlands	NLD	1949	?
21	North Macedonia	?	2020	Skopje
22	Norway	NOR	1949	Oslo
23	Poland	POL	1999	Warsaw
24	Portugal	PRT	1949	Lisbon
25	Romania	ROU	2004	Bucharest
26	Slovakia	SVK	2004	Bratislava
27	Slovenia	SVN	2004	Ljubljana
28	Spain	ESP	1982	Madrid
29	Türkiye	TUR	1952	Ankara
30	United Kingdom	GBR	1949	London, United Kingdom
31	United States	USA	1949	Washington, D.C.

NOTE: Contents of the above table is from this template.

History

After WWII, both Germanies were demilitarized. Wiederbewaffnung was the political goal of West German rearmament and integration with NATO.

Structure

At the highest level, there is a Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark, and four senior officers from the major military participants in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE):

• Supreme Allied Commander Europe, an American four-star officer "dual-hatted" as commander of United States European Command, currently ADM James Stavridis
• Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, a British general or admiral who is warfighting leader in Europe, General Sir John McColl
• Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, a French general or admiral based in the U.S., currently GEN Stéphane Abrial
• SHAPE Chief of Staff, a German general or admiral, General Karl-Heinz Lather

Current deployments

One of the challenges is that military decisions now need to be made by consensus of all the members; member militaries also may need to clear orders from the NATO tactical commander with their home government.

Afghanistan

There was a substantial NATO-sanctioned military force in Afghanistan, including U.S. forces, although there were also independent U.S. forces there not under ISAF command.

• International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), commanded by GEN Stanley McChrystal, United States Army

Kosovo

KFOR is the peace operations force in Kosovo, under the authority of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.

• Kosovo Force (KFOR)