The History Of The North Atlantic Alliance

“I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” This declaration, made by former President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, is part of the Truman Doctrine, and was the basis for U.S. involvement in Western Europe throughout the Cold War. Although the North Atlantic Treaty, and the resulting North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), was established during the Cold War “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,” NATO has persisted since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. This essay will seek to examine the U.S. decision to create and participate in NATO. It will begin by providing a history of NATO and the U.S. decision to participate in NATO before considering how this decision is both an instance of continuity and change in U.S. foreign policy since former President George Washington’s Farewell Address. The essay will conclude by considering the legacy of this decision and its impact on U.S. foreign policy. While this essay will consider the period of time leading up to the formation of NATO and will briefly touch on the present day, greatest consideration will be paid to the time period immediately preceding and following the formation of NATO in 1949.

In a excerpt from the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) that was signed by United States, Canada, and ten nations of Western Europe in 1948 states that

39. The founding North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is best understood in the context of what post-world war 2 events?

The President’s recent actions to send troops to Poland and Lithuania to defend our NATO allies has led to questions regarding the constitutionality of such action and the role congress plays in crafting American foreign policy. It is very important to understand these questions and the debates that surround them are not new to our nation. In fact, two of our nations most important founders, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, debated the balance of congressional and presidential power in foreign affairs all the way back in 1793. Similarly, the need to defend our NATO allies is nothing new. As Russia looks to expand its “sphere of influence” and return to its Cold War Self; we must ensure that our military and our NATO allies have the

Rupp, R. (2000). NATO 1949 and NATO 2000: From the Common defense toward collective security. Journal of Strategic Studies, 23(3), 154-176.

In present day, the U.S. nuclear weapons and DCA (dual capable aircraft), which is used to deliver the weapons, are currently deployed in five European countries (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Turkey). In order to maintain the credibility of its assurance and deterrence, the U.S. should not withdraw its own DCA (dual capable aircraft) and its nuclear weapons from Europe. In the past years, Russia became significantly more aggressive politically and militarily. The annexation of Crimea and the “upgrades of its nuclear and conventional capabilities” are a few examples of Russian’s aggression. Sustaining the DCA and nuclear weapons is a visible demonstration of the U.S. commitment to the security of the transatlantic region and its allies.

NATO relies on stable political and economic conditions for members to meet their obligations. Several NATO countries are limited by economic development and national debt. In 2014, NATO Allies pledged to increase defense spending and meet the NATO 2% guidelines. (EUCOM Posture Statement, 16) Recent Russian manipulation of political and economic programs exploits this vulnerability and creates instability and weakens the NATO Alliance. (USEUCOM Theater Strategy, 3)

This military deployment of US-NATO forces is occurring in several regions of the world simultaneously, resulting in millions of civilian deaths and countless atrocities. More recently, U.S. and NATO ground forces have been deployed in Eastern Europe including Ukraine on Russia’s immediate doorstep.

NATO and the Warsaw pact both violated their founding principles through hatred to opposing sides and mainly causing the Cold War. The Warsaw pact, Established May 14, 1955, in Warsaw Poland was a pact made between the Soviet Union and several eastern European countries to protect each other from NATO. NATO is an alliance between fifteen western nations who felt threatened by soviet troops and desired a mutual defense plan against communism. The alliance was developed shortly after WWII, in 1949. NATO is found by multiple countries and according to their official website, “The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments.

President Truman describe NATO’s creation as “… a neighbourly act taken by countries deeply conscious of their shared heritage as democracies that had come together determined to defend their common values and interests from those who threatened them … The Washington Treaty’s goal was to establish a zone of peace in an area of the world that had been at the heart of … two wars” (Asmus, 2002, pp. 46-57).

NATO Secretary General Lord Ismay recognized this issue, which coupled with an increasing difficulty “to sustain popular support for defense expenditures” and the foresight of a “considerable expenditure (…) to achieve the basic objectives” of NATO strategy caused him to request a detailed reevaluation of the potential implications put forth by the “New Approach”. Following this line of thought, the United Kingdom was by far the biggest upholder of cuts in defense expenditures, as it began pressuring the rest of the Alliance to issue political guidance that would enable a reduction of conventional forces necessary using the guise of nuclear armament as more than sufficient to defend European territory.

The original members of NATO were USA, UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, France, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Greece and Turkey joined in 1952.

I have selected “Security Community Theory” to write a seminar paper. This seminar paper presents a conceptualization of NATO by exploring its role as a security community in European security. In the late 1950s, Karl Deutsch and his colleagues implicitly challenged the governing approach to security by exploring the concept of “security communities”. This was a clear break with traditional approaches to security, which emphasized the utility of military power and the inevitable nature of military threats. They gave the idea of such a community where the component states had come to reject the use or threat of force as a mechanism for resolving disputes. According to security community theory economic and cultural cooperation

While “Washington is pushing hard to help Ukraine, enthusiasm seems weaker among NATO’s other members” (“Rumsfeld Praises Ukraine for NATO Membership Effort”). At the Vilnius, Lithuania conference in October 2003, less than half of the member countries were represented.

The establishment of the European Union (EU) solidified a united political, economic, and defensive front creating a Supranational Organization (Lucas, 1999, no page). With the assistance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United States, the EU has developed a comprehensive security strategy responsible for leading the coalition’s objectives for mutual solidarity, global stabilization, and defense. To address security threats both regionally and globally set forth by the European Security Strategy (ESS), considerations were developed which encompass both cultural domains of geography and development.