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The history of
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...
begins in the immediate aftermath of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
when British diplomacy set the stage to contain the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
and to stop the expansion of soviet power in Europe. The
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
and
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
signed, in 1947, the Treaty of Dunkirk, a defensive pact, which was expanded in 1948 with the
Treaty of Brussels The Treaty of Brussels, also referred to as the Brussels Pact, was the founding treaty of the Western Union (WU) between 1948 and 1954, when it was amended as the Modified Brussels Treaty (MTB) and served as the founding treaty of the Western Eu ...
to add the three
Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico- economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe ...
countries (
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, and
Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
) and committed them to collective defense against an armed attack for fifty years. The British worked with Washington to expand the alliance into NATO in 1949, adding the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
as well as
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
,
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
,
Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...
, and
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
.
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
joined in 1955 and
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
joined in 1982. The
structure of NATO The Structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is complex and multi-faceted. The decision-making body is the North Atlantic Council (NAC), and the member state representatives also sit on the Defence Policy and Planning Committee (DPPC) ...
evolved throughout the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
and its aftermath. An integrated military structure for NATO was first established in 1950 as it became clear that NATO would need to enhance its defences for the longer term against a potential Soviet attack. In April 1951,
Allied Command Europe An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
and its headquarters (
SHAPE A shape or figure is a graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, texture, or material type. A plane shape or plane figure is constrained to lie ...
) were established; later, four subordinate headquarters were added in Northern and Central Europe, the Southern Region, and the Mediterranean. From the 1950s to 2003, the Strategic Commanders were the
Supreme Allied Commander Europe The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is ...
(SACEUR) and the
Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic The Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) was one of two supreme commanders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the other being the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The SACLANT led Allied Command Atlantic was based at ...
(SACLANT).


Beginnings

The
Treaty of Brussels The Treaty of Brussels, also referred to as the Brussels Pact, was the founding treaty of the Western Union (WU) between 1948 and 1954, when it was amended as the Modified Brussels Treaty (MTB) and served as the founding treaty of the Western Eu ...
was a mutual defense treaty against the Soviet threat at the start of the Cold War. It was signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom and was the precursor to NATO. The Soviet threat became immediate with the
Berlin Blockade The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, ro ...
in 1948, leading to the creation of a multinational defense organization, the
Western Union Defence Organisation From April 1948, the member states of the Western Union (WU), decided to create a military agency under the name of the Western Union Defence Organisation (WUDO). WUDO was formally established on September 27–28, 1948. Objective The objective o ...
, in September 1948. However, the parties were too weak militarily to counter the
Soviet Armed Forces The Soviet Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and as the Red Army (, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991), and t ...
. In addition, the communist
1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état In late February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia. It marked the onset of four decades of the party's rule in the country., sk, Február 1948) o ...
had overthrown a democratic government, and British Foreign Minister
Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in th ...
reiterated that the best way to prevent another Czechoslovakia was to evolve a joint Western military strategy. He got a receptive hearing in the United States, especially with the American anxiety over Italy and the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
. In 1948, European leaders met with US defense, military, and diplomatic officials at the Pentagon, exploring a framework for a new and unprecedented association. The talks resulted in the
North Atlantic Treaty The North Atlantic Treaty, also referred to as the Washington Treaty, is the treaty that forms the legal basis of, and is implemented by, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 194 ...
, and the United States signed on 4 April 1949. It included the five Treaty of Brussels states, as well as the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The first
NATO Secretary General The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance, leading NATO's international staff ...
, Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down". Popular support for the treaty was not unanimous, and some Icelanders participated in a pro-neutrality, anti-membership riot in March 1949. The creation of NATO can be seen as the primary institutional consequence of a school of thought called
Atlanticism Atlanticism, also known as Transatlanticism, is the belief in or support for a close relationship between the peoples and governments in Northern America (the United States and Canada) and those in Europe (the countries of the European Union, ...
, which stressed the importance of trans-Atlantic cooperation. The members agreed that an armed attack against any of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. Consequently, they agreed that if an armed attack occurred, each of them, in the exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense, would assist the member being attacked and take such action as it deemed necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. The treaty does not require members to respond with military action against an aggressor. Although obliged to respond, they maintain the freedom to choose the method by which they do so. That differs from Article IV of the Treaty of Brussels, which clearly states that the response is military in nature. NATO members are nonetheless assumed to aid the attacked member militarily. The treaty was later clarified to include both the member's territory and their "vessels, forces or aircraft" north of the
Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towa ...
, including some overseas departments of France. The creation of NATO brought about some
standardization Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardizatio ...
of allied
military terminology Military terminology refers to the terms and language of military organizations and personnel as belonging to a discrete category. As distinguishable by their usage in military doctrine, they serve to depoliticise, dehumanise, or otherwise ab ...
, procedures, and technology, which, in many cases, meant European countries adopting US practices. Roughly 1300 Standardization Agreements (STANAG) codified many of the common practices that NATO has achieved. The
7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first been introduced in U.S. service fo ...
rifle cartridge was thus introduced in the 1950s as a standard firearm cartridge among many NATO countries.
Fabrique Nationale de Herstal Fabrique Nationale Herstal (), trading as FN Herstal and often referred to as Fabrique Nationale or simply FN, is a leading firearms manufacturer based in Herstal, Belgium. It is currently the largest exporter of military small arms in Europe. ...
's FAL, which used the 7.62mm NATO cartridge, was adopted by 75 countries, including many outside NATO. Also, aircraft marshaling signals were standardized so that any NATO aircraft could land at any NATO base. Other standards such as the
NATO phonetic alphabet The (International) Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used set of clear code words for communicating the letters of the Roman alphabet, technically a ''radiotelephonic spellin ...
have made their way beyond NATO into civilian use.


Cold War

The outbreak of the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
in June 1950 was crucial for NATO, as it raised the apparent threat of all Communist countries working together and forced the alliance to develop concrete military plans.
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. ACO's and SHAPE's commander is t ...
(SHAPE) was formed to direct forces in Europe and began work under Supreme Allied Commander
Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War I ...
in January 1951. In September 1950, the
NATO Military Committee The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Military Committee (NATO MC) is the body of NATO that is composed of member states' Chiefs of Defence (CHOD). These national CHODs are regularly represented in the MC by their permanent Military Representat ...
called for an ambitious buildup of conventional forces to meet the Soviets and reaffirmed that position at the February 1952 meeting of the
North Atlantic Council The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the principal political decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), consisting of permanent representatives of its member countries. It was established by Article 9 of the North ...
in
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...
. The conference, seeking to provide the forces necessary for NATO's Long-Term Defence Plan, called for an expansion to 96 divisions. However, that requirement was dropped the following year to roughly 35 divisions, with heavier use to be made of nuclear weapons. At this time, NATO could call on about 15 ready divisions in
Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
and another 10 in Italy and Scandinavia. Also at Lisbon, the post of
Secretary General of NATO The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance, leading NATO's international staff ...
as the organization's chief civilian was created, and Lord Ismay was eventually appointed to the post. In September 1952, the first major NATO maritime exercises began. Exercise Mainbrace brought together 200 ships and over 50,000 personnel to practice the defence of Denmark and Norway. Other major exercises that followed included Exercise Grand Slam and Exercise Longstep, naval and amphibious exercises in the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
, Italic Weld, a combined air-naval-ground exercise in
northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative region ...
, Grand Repulse, involving the
British Army on the Rhine There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. Both formations had areas of responsibility located ...
(BAOR), the Netherlands Corps and
Allied Air Forces Central Europe Allied Air Forces Central Europe (AAFCE) was the NATO command tasked with air and air defense operations in NATOs Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) area of command. History Allied Air Forces Central Europe was activated on 2 April 1951 at Fon ...
(AAFCE), Monte Carlo, a simulated atomic air-ground exercise involving the
Central Army Group Headquarters Allied Force Command Heidelberg (HQ FC Heidelberg) was a formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) responsible for providing deployable joint staff elements (DJSE) in support of NATO operations worldwide. It was head ...
, and Weldfast, a combined amphibious landing exercise in the Mediterranean Sea involving American, British, Greek, Italian, and Turkish naval forces.
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
and
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
also joined the alliance in 1952, which forced a series of controversial negotiations, mainly between United States and Britain, over how to bring both countries into the military command structure. While that overt military preparation was going on, covert
stay-behind In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organizations in its own territory, for use in case an enemy occupies that territory. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement or act as sp ...
arrangements initially made by the Western European Union to continue resistance after a successful Soviet invasion, including
Operation Gladio Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine " stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies durin ...
, were transferred to NATO control. Ultimately, unofficial bonds began to grow between NATO's armed forces, such as the NATO Tiger Association and competitions such as the
Canadian Army Trophy The Canadian Army Trophy (''CAT'') was a tank gunnery competition established to foster excellence, camaraderie and competition among the armoured forces of the NATO countries in Western Europe. The trophy is a miniature sterling silver replica o ...
for tank gunnery. In 1954, the Soviet Union suggested that it should join NATO to preserve peace in Europe. The NATO countries, fearing that the Soviet Union's motive was to weaken the alliance, ultimately rejected that proposal. On 17 December 1954, the North Atlantic Council approved MC 48, a key document in the evolution of NATO nuclear thought. MC 48 emphasized that NATO had to use atomic weapons from the outset of a war with the Soviet Union, whether or not the Soviets chose to use them first. That gave SACEUR the same prerogatives for automatic use of nuclear weapons that existed for the commander-in-chief of the US
Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile ...
. The incorporation of
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
into the organization on 9 May 1955 was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by
Halvard Lange Halvard Manthey Lange (16 September 1902 – 19 May 1970) was a Norwegian politician and diplomat, who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1946-1963 and again from 1963-1965. He was also the longest serving Foreign Minister to date, h ...
, then the Norwegian
Foreign Affairs Minister In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
. A major reason was that German manpower was necessary to have enough conventional forces to resist a Soviet invasion. One of the immediate results of West German entry was the creation of the
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...
, which was signed on 14 May 1955 by the Soviet Union, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria,
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
, Albania, and East Germany, thereby delineating the two opposing sides of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
. Three major exercises were held concurrently in the northern autumn of 1957. Operation Counter Punch, Operation Strikeback, and
Operation Deep Water Operation Deep Water was a 1957 NATO naval exercise held in the Mediterranean Sea that simulated protecting the Dardanelles from a Soviet invasion. By controlling this bottleneck in a war situation, the Soviet Black Sea Fleet would be prevented fr ...
were the most ambitious military undertaking for the alliance so far, involving more than 250,000 men, 300 ships, and 1,500 aircraft operating from Norway to Turkey.


Partial withdrawal of France

NATO's unity was breached early in its history with a crisis occurring during
Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...
's presidency of France. De Gaulle protested the strong role of the United States in NATO and what he perceived as a
special relationship The Special Relationship is a term that is often used to describe the political, social, diplomatic, cultural, economic, legal, environmental, religious, military and historic relations between the United Kingdom and the United States or i ...
between it and the United Kingdom. In a memorandum sent to US President
Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War I ...
and British Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as " Supermac", ...
on 17 September 1958, he argued for the creation of a tripartite directorate, which would put France on an equal footing with the US and the UK. Considering the response to be unsatisfactory, de Gaulle began constructing an independent defense force for his country. He wanted to give France, in the event of an
East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
incursion into West Germany, the option of coming to a separate peace with the
Eastern bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
, instead of being drawn into a larger war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. In February 1959, France withdrew its
Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between t ...
from NATO command, and it later banned the stationing of foreign
nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
on French soil. That caused the United States to transfer 300 military aircraft out of France and to return control of the air force bases that it had operated in France since 1950 to the French by 1967. Though France showed solidarity with the rest of NATO during the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...
in 1962, de Gaulle continued his pursuit of an independent defense by removing France's Atlantic and English Channel fleets from NATO command. In 1966, all French armed forces were removed from NATO's integrated military command, and all non-French NATO troops were asked to leave France. The withdrawal forced the relocation of
SHAPE A shape or figure is a graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, texture, or material type. A plane shape or plane figure is constrained to lie ...
from
Rocquencourt Rocquencourt refers to two places in France: * Rocquencourt, Yvelines * Rocquencourt, Oise {{geodis ...
, near Paris, to
Casteau Casteau ( wa, Castea) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Soignies, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. With the other villages Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies, Horrues, Naast, Neufvilles, Soignies (town), ...
, Belgium, by 16 October 1967. France remained a member of the alliance and committed to the defense of Europe from possible Warsaw Pact attack with its own forces stationed in West Germany throughout the Cold War. A series of secret accords between the US and French officials, the Lemnitzer–Ailleret Agreements, detailed how French forces would dovetail back into NATO's command structure if East-West hostilities broke out. When de Gaulle announced his decision to withdraw from the integrated NATO command, US President
Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
suggested that when de Gaulle "comes rushing down like a locomotive on the track, why the Germans and ourselves, we just stand aside and let him go on by, then we are back together again." That vision came true when France announced its return to full participation at the 2009 Strasbourg–Kehl summit.


Détente and escalation

During most of the Cold War, NATO's watch against the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact did not actually lead to direct military action. On 1 July 1968, the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation ...
opened for signature. NATO argued that its
nuclear sharing Nuclear sharing is a concept in NATO's policy of nuclear deterrence, which allows member countries without nuclear weapons of their own to participate in the planning for the use of nuclear weapons by NATO. In particular, it provides for the ar ...
arrangements did not breach the treaty since US forces controlled the weapons until a decision was made to go to war when the treaty would no longer be controlling. Few states then knew of the NATO nuclear sharing arrangements, which were not challenged. In May 1978, NATO countries officially defined two complementary aims of the Alliance: to maintain security and pursue détente. That was supposed to mean matching defenses at the level rendered necessary by the Warsaw Pact's offensive capabilities without spurring a further
arms race An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and ...
. On 12 December 1979, in light of a build-up of Warsaw Pact nuclear capabilities in Europe, ministers approved the deployment of US
GLCM The Ground Launched Cruise Missile, or GLCM, (officially designated BGM-109G Gryphon) was a ground-launched cruise missile developed by the United States Air Force in the last decade of the Cold War and disarmed under the INF Treaty. Overview ...
cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...
s and
Pershing II The Pershing II Weapon System was a solid-fueled two-stage medium-range ballistic missile designed and built by Martin Marietta to replace the Pershing 1a Field Artillery Missile System as the United States Army's primary nuclear-capable thea ...
theatre nuclear weapons in Europe. The new warheads were also meant to strengthen the West's negotiating position regarding nuclear disarmament. That policy was called the Dual Track policy. Similarly, in 1983 and 1984, responding to the stationing of Warsaw Pact
SS-20 The RSD-10 ''Pioneer'' (russian: ракета средней дальности (РСД) «Пионер» tr.: ''raketa sredney dalnosti (RSD) "Pioner"''; en, Medium-Range Missile "Pioneer") was an intermediate-range ballistic missile with a ...
medium-range missiles in Europe, NATO deployed modern Pershing II missiles tasked to hit military targets such as tank formations in the event of war. That action led to
peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...
protests throughout Western Europe, and support for their deployment wavered, as many doubted whether the push for deployment could be sustained. The membership of the organization was then largely static. In 1974, as a consequence of the
Turkish invasion of Cyprus The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of Cypriot intercommunal violence, intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots, Greek and Turkish ...
, Greece withdrew its forces from NATO's military command structure but, with Turkish co-operation, was readmitted in 1980. The
Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...
between the United Kingdom and Argentina did not result in NATO involvement because Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that collective self-defense is applicable only to attacks on member state territories north of the
Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towa ...
. On 30 May 1982, NATO gained a new member when the newly-democratic Spain joined the alliance, as was confirmed by referendum in 1986. At the peak of the Cold War, 16 member nations maintained an approximate strength of 5,252,800 active militaries, including as many as 435,000 forward-deployed US forces, under a command structure that reached a peak of 78 headquarters, organized into four echelons.


After the Cold War

The Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991 removed the ''de facto'' main adversary of NATO and caused a strategic re-evaluation of NATO's purpose, nature, tasks, and focus on the continent of Europe. The shift started, with the 1990 signing in Paris of the
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe The original Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was negotiated and concluded during the last years of the Cold War and established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe (from the Atlan ...
between NATO and the Soviet Union, which mandated specific military reductions across the continent, which continued after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
in December 1991. European countries then accounted for 34 percent of NATO's military spending; by 2012, that had fallen to 21 percent. NATO also began a gradual expansion to include countries of
Central and Eastern Europe Central and Eastern Europe is a term encompassing the countries in the Baltics, Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Southeast Europe (mostly the Balkans), usually meaning former communist states from the Eastern Bloc and Warsaw Pact in Europe. ...
and extended its activities into political and humanitarian situations that had not been thought of as NATO concerns. An expansion of NATO came with
German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
on 3 October 1990, when the former East Germany became part of the
Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
and of the alliance. That had been agreed in the
Two Plus Four Treaty The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (german: Vertrag über die abschließende Regelung in Bezug auf Deutschland; rus, Договор об окончательном урегулировании в отношении Ге ...
earlier that year. To secure Soviet approval of a united Germany remaining in NATO, it was agreed that foreign troops and nuclear weapons would not be stationed in the east. There was no formal commitment in the agreement not to expand NATO to the east, but there are diverging views on whether negotiators gave informal commitments regarding further NATO expansion.
Jack Matlock Jack Foust Matlock Jr. (born October 1, 1929) is an American former ambassador, career Foreign Service Officer, a teacher, a historian, and a linguist. He was a Soviet and Communist studies, specialist in Soviet affairs during some of the most tu ...
, the American ambassador to the Soviet Union during its final years, said that the West gave a "clear commitment" not to expand, and declassified documents indicate that Soviet negotiators had the impression that NATO membership was off the table for countries such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, or Poland.
Hans-Dietrich Genscher Hans-Dietrich Genscher (21 March 1927 – 31 March 2016) was a German statesman and a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1969 to 1974, and as Federal Minister for Foreign Affa ...
, the West German foreign minister, said in a conversation with
Eduard Shevardnadze Eduard Ambrosis dze Shevardnadze ( ka, ედუარდ ამბროსის ძე შევარდნაძე}, romanized: ; 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014) was a Soviet and Georgian politician and diplomat who governed Georgia for ...
, "For us, however, one thing is certain: NATO will not expand to the east." In 1996, Gorbachev wrote in his ''Memoirs'' that "during the negotiations on the unification of Germany they gave assurances that NATO would not extend its zone of operation to the east," and he repeated that view in an interview in 2008. However, in 2014 Gorbachev stated the opposite: "The topic of 'NATO expansion' was not discussed at all
n 1990 N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
and it wasn't brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility. Western leaders didn't bring it up, either." According to
Robert Zoellick Robert Bruce Zoellick (; ; born July 25, 1953) is an American public official and lawyer who was the eleventh president of the World Bank, a position he held from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2012. He was previously a managing director of Goldman Sach ...
, a
US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
official involved in the Two Plus Four negotiating process, that appears to be a misperception, and no formal commitment regarding enlargement was made. Harvard University historian Mark Kramer also rejects that an informal agreement existed. Memorandums published by the
National Security Archive The National Security Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1985 to check rising government secrecy. The Nat ...
in 2017 indicate that multiple assurances against NATO expansion were indeed made to Soviet leaders at the highest levels in 1990 and 1991. As part of restructuring, NATO's military structure was cut back and reorganized, with new forces such as the
Headquarters Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps The Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization High Readiness Force (Land) Headquarters ready for deployment worldwide. History The ARRC was created on 1 October 1992 in Bielefeld based on the former I (Britis ...
established. The changes brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union on the military balance in Europe were recognized in the
Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty The Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty is a post–Cold War adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), signed on November 19, 1999, during the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OS ...
, which was signed by 30 countries in 1999, ratified by Russia in 2000, but never ratified by any NATO member, and therefore never came into effect. The policies of French President
Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...
resulted in a major reform of France's military position, culminating with the return to full membership on 4 April 2009, which also included France rejoining the
NATO Military Command Structure The Structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is complex and multi-faceted. The decision-making body is the North Atlantic Council (NAC), and the member state representatives also sit on the Defence Planning Committee (NATO), Defence Pol ...
but maintaining an independent nuclear deterrent.


Enlargement and reform

Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbors were set up, like the
Partnership for Peace The Partnership for Peace (PfP; french: Partenariat pour la paix) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) program aimed at creating trust between the member states of NATO and other states mostly in Europe, including post-Soviet states; ...
, the
Mediterranean Dialogue The Mediterranean Dialogue, first launched in 1994, is a forum of cooperation between NATO and seven countries of the Mediterranean. Its stated aim is "to create good relations and better mutual understanding and confidence throughout the region, pr ...
initiative, and the
Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) is a post–Cold War, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) institution. The EAPC is a multilateral forum created to improve relations between NATO and non-NATO countries in Europe and Central Asi ...
. In 1998, the NATO–Russia Permanent Joint Council was established. On 8 July 1997, three former communist countries (Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland) were invited to join NATO, which was accepted by all three, with Hungarian acceptance being endorsed in a referendum in which 85.3% of voters supported joining NATO. Czech President Vaclav Havel welcomed the expansion: "Never have we been part of such a broad, solid and binding security alliance, which at the same time respects in its essence the sovereignty and will of our nation." Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek also welcomed the expansion: "Poland forever returns where she has always belonged: the free world." Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi stated that the expansion showed that Hungary was returning "to her natural habitat." The expansion was also welcomed by US Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...
, who stated that the expansion would do "for Europe's east what NATO has already helped to do for Europe's west: steadily and systematically, we will continue erasing – without replacing – the line drawn in Europe by
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
's bloody boot." The expansion was criticized in the US by some policy experts as a "policy error of historic proportions." According to
George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...
, an American diplomat and former advocate of the
containment Containment was a geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. The name was loosely related to the term ''cordon sanitaire'', which was ...
policy, the decision "may be expected to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to
East-West relations East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *''East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salma ...
, to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking." Membership went on expanding with the accession of seven more Central and Eastern European countries to NATO:
Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
,
Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
,
Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
,
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
,
Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
,
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
, and
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
. They were first invited to start talks of membership during the 2002 Prague summit and joined NATO on 29 March 2004, shortly before the 2004 Istanbul summit. Slovenian membership was endorsed in a referendum in which 66.02% of voters supported joining. The entry of Romania into NATO is particularly notable as it put the strategic
Focșani Gate The Focșani Gate ( ro, Poarta Focșani or ) is a militarily and strategically vulnerable area in Romania and NATO. Control of the Focșani Gate allows entry into vast tracts of Romanian territory and several other regions of Europe. History Th ...
under NATO control. New NATO structures were also formed while old ones were abolished. In 1997, NATO reached agreement on a significant downsizing of its command structure from 65 headquarters to 20. The
NATO Response Force The NATO Response Force (NRF) is a high-readiness force comprising land, air, sea and special forces units capable of being deployed quickly. Until February 2022, when NATO activated it in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine,JAMES KITFIEL(1 ...
(NRF) was launched at the 2002 Prague summit on 21 November, the first summit in a former
Comecon The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (, ; English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, CEMA, or CAME) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along wi ...
country. On 19 June 2003, a further restructuring of the NATO military commands began as the Headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic were abolished and a new command,
Allied Command Transformation Allied Command Transformation (ACT) (French: ''Commandement allié Transformation'') is a military command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed in 2003 after restructuring. It was intended to lead military transformation of ...
(ACT), was established in
Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...
, United States, and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) became the Headquarters of
Allied Command Operations Allied Command Operations (ACO) is one of the two strategic commands of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the other being Allied Command Transformation (ACT). The headquarters and commander of ACO is Supreme Headquarters Allied Powe ...
(ACO). ACT is responsible for driving transformation (future capabilities) in NATO while ACO is responsible for current operations. In March 2004, NATO's
Baltic Air Policing The Baltic air-policing mission is a NATO air defence Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) in order to guard the airspace above the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Mission Within the Alliance, preserving airspace integrity is con ...
began, which supported the sovereignty of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia by providing jet fighters to react to any unwanted aerial intrusions. Eight multinational jet fighters are based in Lithuania, the number of which was increased from four in 2014. Also at the 2004 Istanbul summit, NATO launched the
Istanbul Cooperation Initiative The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) is a NATO initiative that was launched during the organisation's 2004 Istanbul summit. During the summit, NATO leaders decided to elevate the Alliance's Mediterranean Dialogue to a genuine partnership and ...
with four
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
nations. The 2006 Riga summit was held in Riga, Latvia, and highlighted the issue of energy security. It was the first
NATO summit A NATO summit is a summit meeting that is regarded as a periodic opportunity for heads of state and heads of government of NATO member countries to evaluate and provide strategic direction for Alliance activities. NATO summits are not regular ...
to be held in a country that had been part of the old Soviet Union. At the April 2008 summit in Bucharest, Romania, NATO agreed to the accession of
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
and
Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
, both of which joined NATO in April 2009. Ukraine and Georgia were also told that they could eventually become members. The issue of Georgian and Ukrainian membership in NATO prompted harsh criticism from Russia, as did NATO plans for a missile defence system. Studies for the system had begun in 2002, with negotiations centered on
anti-ballistic missile An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to counter ballistic missiles (missile defense). Ballistic missiles are used to deliver nuclear weapon, nuclear, Chemical weapon, chemical, Bioagent, biological, or conventiona ...
s being stationed in Poland and the Czech Republic. Though NATO leaders gave assurances that the system was not targeting Russia, Russian Presidents
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
and
Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
criticized the system as a threat. In 2009, US President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
proposed using the ship-based
Aegis Combat System The Aegis Combat System is an American integrated naval weapons system developed by the Missile and Surface Radar Division of RCA, and it is now produced by Lockheed Martin. Initially used by the United States Navy, Aegis is now used also by ...
, but the plan still includes stations being built in Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Romania, and Poland. NATO will also maintain the "status quo" in its nuclear deterrent in Europe by upgrading the targeting capabilities of the "tactical"
B61 nuclear bomb The B61 nuclear bomb is the primary thermonuclear gravity bomb in the United States Enduring Stockpile following the end of the Cold War. It is a low to intermediate-yield strategic and tactical nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation imp ...
s stationed there and deploying them on the stealthier
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide ele ...
. On 15 June 2016, NATO officially recognized
cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic war ...
as an operational domain of war, just like land, sea, and aerial warfare. That means that any cyber attack on NATO members can trigger Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Likewise, on 4 December 2019, NATO additionally recognized
space warfare Space warfare is hypothetical combat in which one or more belligerents are situated in outer space. The scope of space warfare therefore includes ''ground-to-space warfare'', such as attacking satellites from the Earth; ''space-to-space warfa ...
as an operational domain of war.
Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...
became the 29th member of NATO on 5 June 2017, amid strong objections from Russia. On 27 March 2020,
North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
became the 30th and newest member after a dispute about its name had been resolved with Greece.


Ukraine and Syria

The 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea led to strong condemnation by NATO nations, and Poland invoked Article 4 in meetings. At the 2014 Wales summit, the leaders of NATO's member states formally committed for the first time spend the equivalent of at least 2% of their
gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a money, monetary Measurement in economics, measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjec ...
on defence by 2024, which was previously only an informal guideline. In February 2015, NATO committed to forming a new "spearhead" force of 5000 troops at bases in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. NATO did not condemn the 2016–present purges in Turkey. As a result of the Turkish invasion of Kurdish-inhabited areas in Syria, Turkey's intervention in Libya and the
Cyprus–Turkey maritime zones dispute The Republic of Cyprus (Cyprus) and Turkey have been engaged in a dispute over the extent of their exclusive economic zones (EEZ), ostensibly sparked by oil and gas exploration in the area. Turkey objects to Cypriot drilling in waters that Cy ...
, there are signs of a schism between Turkey and other NATO members. On 1 August 2018, the
US Department of Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...
sanctioned two senior Turkish government ministers who were involved in the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson. Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...
said that the US behavior would force Turkey to look for new friends and allies. The US–Turkey dispute appears to be one of the most serious diplomatic crisis between the NATO allies in years. The
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
led eight NATO countries—Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia—to trigger Article 4. The
North Atlantic Council The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the principal political decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), consisting of permanent representatives of its member countries. It was established by Article 9 of the North ...
issued a statement in which it condemned the invasion "in the strongest possible terms". Elements of the
NATO Response Force The NATO Response Force (NRF) is a high-readiness force comprising land, air, sea and special forces units capable of being deployed quickly. Until February 2022, when NATO activated it in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine,JAMES KITFIEL(1 ...
were activated for the first time in NATO's history. In March, NATO leaders met at Brussels for an extraordinary summit which also involved
Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is official ...
and
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
leaders. NATO member states agreed to establish four additional battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. The aircraft carrier USS ''Harry S. Truman'' and its
carrier strike group A carrier strike group (CSG) is a type of carrier battle group of the United States Navy. It is an operational formation composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, usually an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least t ...
were placed under the command of
Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) is the principal naval service command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO), replacing Naval Striking and Support Forces Southern Europe (STRIKFORS ...
, marking the first time an entire US carrier group was placed under NATO command since the Cold War.


Structural changes

The Defence Planning Committee was a former senior decision-making body on matters relating to the integrated military structure of the Alliance. It was dissolved after a major committee review in June 2010, with its responsibilities absorbed by the North Atlantic Council.


Civilian structure

In ''NATO: The First Five Years'', Lord Ismay described the civilian structure as follows:
The ..Office of the Secretary-General sdirected by an Executive Secretary, Captain R.D. Coleridge (UK), who is also Secretary to the Council. He is responsible for supervising the general processing of the work of the Council and their committees, including the provision of all secretarial assistance, as well as supervision of the administrative services of the Staff/Secretariat itself. Thus the Secretariat provides secretaries to all the Council's principal committees and working groups - apart from those of a strictly technical nature - and ensures coordination between them... On the Staff side, there are three main divisions corresponding to the three principal aspects of NATO's work, each under an Assistant Secretary-General. Ambassador Sergio Fenoaltea (Italy) heads the Political Affairs Division, M. Rene Sergent (France) the Economics and Finance Division, and Mr. Lowell P. Weicker (USA) the Production and Logistics Division. The Divisions' tasks are to prepare, in close touch with delegations, proposed action in their respective fields for consideration by the appropriate committee or by the Council. In addition to the main divisions, there are three other offices working directly to the Secretary-General. These are the Office of Statistics (Mr. Loring Wood of the USA), the Financial Comptroller's Office (M. A. J. Bastin of Belgium), and the Division of Information (Mr. Geoffrey Parsons, Jr. of the USA). The Information Division, besides providing material about NATO for the use of member governments, (it does not engage in independent operations), is also the press and public relations branch of the civilian authority.


Military structure

The Strategic Commanders were the former Major NATO Commanders, who sat atop a command hierarchy consisting of Major Subordinate Commanders (MSCs), Principal Subordinate Commanders (PSCs), and Sub-PSCs. The Military Committee had an executive body, the Standing Group, made up of representatives from France, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The Standing Group was abolished during the major reform of 1967 that resulted from France's departure from the
NATO Military Command Structure The Structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is complex and multi-faceted. The decision-making body is the North Atlantic Council (NAC), and the member state representatives also sit on the Defence Planning Committee (NATO), Defence Pol ...
.Dr Gregory W. Pedlow
Evolution of NATO's Command Structure 1951-2009
File:Greater coat of arms of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (1982–1999).svg,
Allied Command Europe An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
: Supreme Headquarters File:Coat of arms of Allied Forces Northern Europe.svg,
Allied Command Europe An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
:
Allied Forces Northern Europe Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) was the northern Major Subordinate Command of NATO's Allied Command Europe (ACE), located at Kolsås outside Oslo. In the case of war with the Soviet Union, AFNORTH would assume supreme command of all Allie ...
File:Coat of arms of Headquarters, Allied Forces Central Europe.svg,
Allied Command Europe An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
:
Allied Forces Central Europe Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) is a NATO command with its headquarters at Brunssum, the Netherlands. It was established in 2004 from previous commands as part of NATO's continuing command structure reductions in the face of a then-dim ...
File:Coat of arms of Headquarters, Allied Forces Southern Europe.svg,
Allied Command Europe An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
: Allied Forces Southern Europe File:Coat of arms of Allied Commad Channel.svg,
Allied Command Channel Allied Command Channel (ACCHAN) was one of three major North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commands from 1952 to 1994. Commander-in-Chief Channel was a Major NATO Commander (MNC). The Command was established in 1952 to defend the sea areas a ...
File:Coat of arms of Allied Command Atlantic.svg,
Allied Command Atlantic An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...


Beginnings

A key step in establishing the NATO Command Structure was the North Atlantic Council's selection of General
Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War I ...
as the first
Supreme Allied Commander Europe The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is ...
(SACEUR) in December 1950. After Eisenhower arrived in Paris in January 1951, he and the other members of the multinational
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. ACO's and SHAPE's commander is t ...
(SHAPE) Planning Group immediately began to devise a structure for the new Allied Command Europe. NATO official documents state, "The cornerstone of the NATO Military Command Structure was laid... when the North Atlantic Council approved D.C. 24/3 on 18 December 1951." They quickly decided to divide Allied Command Europe into three regions:
Allied Forces Northern Europe Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) was the northern Major Subordinate Command of NATO's Allied Command Europe (ACE), located at Kolsås outside Oslo. In the case of war with the Soviet Union, AFNORTH would assume supreme command of all Allie ...
, containing Scandinavia, the North Sea, and the Baltic;
Allied Forces Central Europe Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) is a NATO command with its headquarters at Brunssum, the Netherlands. It was established in 2004 from previous commands as part of NATO's continuing command structure reductions in the face of a then-dim ...
, and Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH), covering Italy and the Mediterranean. SHAPE was established at
Rocquencourt Rocquencourt refers to two places in France: * Rocquencourt, Yvelines * Rocquencourt, Oise {{geodis ...
, west of Paris. The British post of Commander in Chief
Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between t ...
was given a dual-hatted role as
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...
Commander in Chief of
Allied Forces Mediterranean Allied Forces Mediterranean was a NATO command covering all military operations in the Mediterranean Sea from 1952 to 1967. The command was based at Malta. History The British post of Commander in Chief Mediterranean Fleet was given a dual-hatte ...
in charge of all forces assigned to NATO in the Mediterranean Area. The British made strong representations in discussions regarding the Mediterranean NATO command structure since they wished to retain their direction of NATO naval command in the Mediterranean to protect their
sea lines of communication Sea lines of communication (abbreviated as SLOC) is a term describing the primary maritime routes between ports, used for trade, logistics and naval forces. It is generally used in reference to naval operations to ensure that SLOCs are open, or in ...
running through the Mediterranean to the Middle East and the Far East. In 1952, after Greece and Turkey joined NATO
Allied Land Forces South-Eastern Europe Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) formerly Allied Land Forces South-Eastern Europe (LANDSOUTHEAST) is the standing headquarters for NATO land forces which may be assigned as necessary. The Commander LANDCOM is the primary land warfare advisor to Supre ...
(LANDSOUTHEAST) was created in Izmir, Turkey, under a US Army General because of the geographic distance of both countries from the LANDSOUTH headquarters as well as political disagreements over which nation should be the overall commander for its ground forces. With the establishment of
Allied Command Atlantic An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
(ACLANT) on 30 January 1952, the
Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic The Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) was one of two supreme commanders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the other being the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The SACLANT led Allied Command Atlantic was based at ...
joined the previously created
Supreme Allied Commander Europe The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is ...
as one of the alliance's two Major NATO Commanders. A third was added when
Allied Command Channel Allied Command Channel (ACCHAN) was one of three major North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commands from 1952 to 1994. Commander-in-Chief Channel was a Major NATO Commander (MNC). The Command was established in 1952 to defend the sea areas a ...
was established on 21 February 1952 to control the
English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
and
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
area and deny them to the enemy and to protect the sea lanes of communication. The establishment of this post and the agreement that it was to be filled by the British
Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. The commanders-in-chief were based at premises in High Street, Portsmouth from the 1790s until the end of Sir Thomas Williams's tenure, his succes ...
, was part of the compromise that allowed an American officer to take up the SACLANT post. Previously Commander-in-Chief Portsmouth had controlled multinational naval operations in the area under
WUDO From April 1948, the member states of the Western Union (WU), decided to create a military agency under the name of the Western Union Defence Organisation (WUDO). WUDO was formally established on September 27–28, 1948. Objective The objective o ...
auspices. In due course, the CINCHAN role was assumed by the British
Commander-in-Chief Fleet The Commander-in-Chief Fleet (CINCFLEET) was the admiral responsible for the operations of the ships, submarines and aircraft of the British Royal Navy from 1971 until April 2012. The post was subordinate to the First Sea Lord, the professional he ...
. In 1966, when French President
Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...
withdrew French forces from the military command structure, NATO's headquarters was forced to move to Belgium. SHAPE was moved to
Casteau Casteau ( wa, Castea) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Soignies, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. With the other villages Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies, Horrues, Naast, Neufvilles, Soignies (town), ...
, north of the Belgian city of
Mons Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...
. Headquarters
Allied Forces Central Europe Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) is a NATO command with its headquarters at Brunssum, the Netherlands. It was established in 2004 from previous commands as part of NATO's continuing command structure reductions in the face of a then-dim ...
was moved from the Chateau de Fontainebleau, near Paris to Brunssum, in the Netherlands.


Structure in 1989

* NATO Military Committee, led by the
Chairman of the NATO Military Committee The Chair of the NATO Military Committee (CMC) is the head of the NATO Military Committee, which advises the North Atlantic Council (NAC) on military policy and strategy. The CMC is the senior military spokesperson of the 30-nation alliance and p ...
, in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
**
Allied Command Europe An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
(ACE), led by
Supreme Allied Commander Europe The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is ...
(SACEUR), in
Mons Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...
, Belgium *** ACE Mobile Force, in Seckenheim, Germany *** United Kingdom Air Forces, in
High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...
,
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
*** NATO Airborne Early Warning Force, in Maisieres, Belgium ***
Allied Forces Northern Europe Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) was the northern Major Subordinate Command of NATO's Allied Command Europe (ACE), located at Kolsås outside Oslo. In the case of war with the Soviet Union, AFNORTH would assume supreme command of all Allie ...
(AFNORTH), in
Kolsås Kolsås (), sometimes called Kolsaas, is a hill in the municipality of Bærum, Norway. Geologically, Kolsås belongs to the Oslo Graben area. Its two peaks consist of hard rhomb porphyric lava covering softer rocks, forming steep cliffs to the ...
, Norway ****
Allied Forces North Norway Allied Forces North Norway (NON) was a NATO command tasked with the defense of Northern Norway. NON's area of responsibility covered the three northernmost counties of Norway: Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, as well as the adjacent sea territory. ...
(NON), in Bodø, Norway ****
Allied Forces South Norway Allied Forces South Norway (SONOR) was a NATO command tasked with the defense of Southern Norway. SONOR's area of responsibility included all of Norway with the adjacent sea territory excluding the three northernmost counties of Norway, which were ...
(SONOR), in
Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...
, Norway ****
Allied Forces Baltic Approaches Allied Forces Baltic Approaches (BALTAP) was a Principal Subordinate Command (PSC) of the NATO Military Command Structure, with responsibility for the Baltic Sea area. It was in existence from 1962 to 2002 and consisted of the Danish Armed Forces ...
(BALTAP), in
Karup Karup is a town in Viborg Municipality, Denmark. Notable people * Morten Bødskov Morten Bødskov (born 1 May 1970 in Karup) is a Danish Social Democratic politician, and member of the Folketing, currently serving as the Minister for Busine ...
, Denmark ***** Allied Land Forces Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland (LANDJUT), in
Rendsburg Rendsburg ( da, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'', nds, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'') is a town on the River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the central part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) of Rendsburg-Ecke ...
, Germany ***** Allied Land Forces in Zealand (LANDZEALAND), in
Ringsted Ringsted is a city located centrally in the Danish island of Zealand. It is the seat of a municipality of the same name. Ringsted is situated approximately 60 km from Copenhagen. Tourism and transport Ringsted is one of Denmark's busies ...
, Denmark ***** Allied Air Forces Baltic Approaches (AIRBALTAP), in Karup, Denmark ***** Allied Naval Forces Baltic Approaches (NAVBALTAP), in Karup, Denmark ***
Allied Forces Central Europe Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) is a NATO command with its headquarters at Brunssum, the Netherlands. It was established in 2004 from previous commands as part of NATO's continuing command structure reductions in the face of a then-dim ...
(AFCENT), in Brunssum,
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
****
Northern Army Group The Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) was a NATO military formation comprising four Western European Army Corps, during the Cold War as part of NATO's forward defence in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Army Group headquarters was established on ...
(NORTHAG), in
Rheindahlen Rheindahlen (called ''Dalen'' from the Early Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period around 1700, and ''Dahlen'' until 1878) is a town in the western and largest borough of the city of Mönchengladbach in the German state of North Rhine-Westphali ...
,
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
****
Central Army Group Headquarters Allied Force Command Heidelberg (HQ FC Heidelberg) was a formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) responsible for providing deployable joint staff elements (DJSE) in support of NATO operations worldwide. It was hea ...
(CENTAG), in
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, West Germany ****
Allied Air Forces Central Europe Allied Air Forces Central Europe (AAFCE) was the NATO command tasked with air and air defense operations in NATOs Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) area of command. History Allied Air Forces Central Europe was activated on 2 April 1951 at Fon ...
(AAFCE), in Ramstein, West Germany *****
Second Allied Tactical Air Force Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF) was a NATO military formation under Allied Air Forces Central Europe tasked with providing air support to NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG). 2 ATAF commanded all flying units based within its sector and ...
(2 ATAF), in Rheindahlen, West Germany *****
Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force (4 ATAF) was a NATO military formation under Allied Air Forces Central Europe tasked with providing air support to NATO's Allied Force Command Heidelberg, Central Army Group (CENTAG) in southern West Germany. 4 ATAF ...
(4 ATAF), in Ramstein, West Germany *** Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH), in
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
,
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
****
Allied Land Forces Southern Europe Allied Land Forces Southern Europe (LANDSOUTH) was a military command of NATO's Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH) command. Based in Verona in Northern Italy LANDSOUTH was tasked with defending Italy north of the Apennine mountains against a ...
(LANDSOUTH), in
Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
, Italy ****
Allied Land Forces South-Eastern Europe Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) formerly Allied Land Forces South-Eastern Europe (LANDSOUTHEAST) is the standing headquarters for NATO land forces which may be assigned as necessary. The Commander LANDCOM is the primary land warfare advisor to Supre ...
(LANDSOUTHEAST), in
İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...
,
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
****
Allied Air Forces Southern Europe Allied Air Forces Southern Europe (AIRSOUTH) was a military aviation component command of the NATO Military Command Structure from 1951 to 2004. History Allied Air Forces Southern Europe (AIRSOUTH) was established in temporary facilities in Flore ...
(AIRSOUTH), in Naples, Italy ***** Fifth Allied Tactical Air Force (5 ATAF), in Vicenza, Italy ***** Sixth Allied Tactical Air Force (6 ATAF), in İzmir, Turkey ****
Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe (NAVSOUTH) was a Component Command in NATO's Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH). Between 1951 and 1953, after the establishment of AFSOUTH, Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe, initially Admi ...
(NAVSOUTH), in Naples, Italy **** Naval Striking and Support Forces Southern Europe (STRIKFORSOUTH), afloat, centered around
US Sixth Fleet The Sixth Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy operating as part of United States Naval Forces Europe. The Sixth Fleet is headquartered at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy. The officially stated mission of the Sixth Fleet in ...
**
Allied Command Atlantic An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
(ACLANT), led by
Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic The Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) was one of two supreme commanders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the other being the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The SACLANT led Allied Command Atlantic was based at ...
(SACLANT), in
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
***
Eastern Atlantic Area The Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) was one of two supreme commanders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the other being the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The SACLANT led Allied Command Atlantic was based at ...
(EASTLANT), in Northwood, United Kingdom **** Northern Sub-Area (NORLANT), in
Rosyth Rosyth ( gd, Ros Fhìobh, "headland of Fife") is a town on the Firth of Forth, south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to the census of 2011, the town has a population of 13,440. The new town was founded as a Garden city-style suburb ...
, United Kingdom **** Central Sub-Area (CENTLANT), in
Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...
, United Kingdom **** Submarine Force Eastern Atlantic (SUBEASTLANT), in
Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...
, United Kingdom **** Maritime Air Eastern Atlantic (MAIREASTLANT), in Northwood, United Kingdom ***** Maritime Air Northern Sub-Area (MAIRNORLANT), in Rosyth, United Kingdom ***** Maritime Air Central Sub-Area (MAIRCENTLANT), in Plymouth, United Kingdom **** Island Command Iceland (ISCOMICELAND), in
Keflavík Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129. In 1995, Keflavik merged with nearby Njarð ...
,
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
****
Island Command Faroes Island Command Faroes ( da, Færøernes Kommando; ISCOMFAROES) was the military unit on the Faroe Islands. It was the military command of the Faroe Islands, the Faroe Islands airspace and the Faroe Islands territorial waters. It supported the loca ...
(ISCOMFAROES), in
Tórshavn Tórshavn (; lit. "Thor's harbour"), usually locally referred to as simply ''Havn'', is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the ...
,
Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
*** Western Atlantic Area (WESTLANT), in Norfolk, United States **** Ocean Sub-Area (OCEANLANT), in Norfolk, United States **** Canadian Atlantic Sub-Area (CANLANT), in Halifax,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
**** Island Command Bermuda (ISCOMBERMUDA), in
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...
,
Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...
**** Island Command Azores (ISCOMAZORES), in
Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality (''concelho'') and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,28 ...
,
Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
**** Island Command Greenland (ISCOMGREENLAND), in Grønnedal,
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
**** Submarine Force Western Atlantic (SUBWESTLANT), in Norfolk, United States *** Iberian Atlantic Area (IBERLANT), in Oeiras,
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
**** Island Command Madeira (ISCOMADEIRA), in
Funchal Funchal () is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Madeira, Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it the sixth largest city in Portugal. Because of ...
,
Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...
*** Striking Fleet Atlantic (STRIKFLTLANT), in Norfolk, United States **** Carrier Striking Force (CARSTRIKFOR), in Norfolk, United States ***** Carrier Striking Group One (CARSTRIKGRUONE), in Norfolk, United States ***** Carrier Striking Group Two (CARSTRIKGRUTWO), in Plymouth, United Kingdom *** Submarines Allied Command Atlantic (SUBACLANT), in Norfolk, United States **
Allied Command Channel Allied Command Channel (ACCHAN) was one of three major North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commands from 1952 to 1994. Commander-in-Chief Channel was a Major NATO Commander (MNC). The Command was established in 1952 to defend the sea areas a ...
(ACCHAN), in Northwood, United Kingdom *** Nore Sub-Area Channel Command (NORECHAN), in Rosyth, United Kingdom *** Plymouth Sub-Area Channel Command (PLYMCHAN), in
Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...
, United Kingdom *** Benelux Sub-Area Channel Command (BENECHAN), in
Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...
,
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
*** Allied Maritime Air Force Channel (MAIRCHAN), in Northwood, United Kingdom **** Maritime Air Nore Sub-Area Channel Command (MAIRNORECHAN), in Rosyth, United Kingdom **** Maritime Air Plymouth Sub-Area Channel Command (MAIRPLYMCHAN), in Plymouth, United Kingdom *** Standing Naval Force Channel (STANAVFORCHAN), afloat


After Cold War

By June 1991, it was clear that Allied Forces Central Europe, a Major Subordinate Command, could be reduced, with the Soviet threat disappearing. Six multinational corps were to replace the previous eight. Announcements in June 1991 presaged main defensive forces consisting of six multinational corps. Two were to be under German command, one with a US division, one under Belgian command with a pending offer of a U.S. brigade, one under U.S. command with a German division, one under joint German-Danish command (LANDJUT), and one under Dutch command. The new German IV Corps was to be stationed in eastern German and was not to be associated with the NATO structure. On July 1, 1994, the Alliance disestablished
Allied Command Channel Allied Command Channel (ACCHAN) was one of three major North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commands from 1952 to 1994. Commander-in-Chief Channel was a Major NATO Commander (MNC). The Command was established in 1952 to defend the sea areas a ...
but retained many of its subordinate structures after the reshuffling. Most of the headquarters were absorbed within ACE, particularly within the new
Allied Forces Northwestern Europe Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) was the northern Major Subordinate Command of NATO's Allied Command Europe (ACE), located at Kolsås outside Oslo. In the case of war with the Soviet Union, AFNORTH would assume supreme command of all Allie ...
. From 1994 to 1999, ACE had three Major Subordinate Commands, AFNORTHWEST, AFCENT, and AFSOUTH. In 1995 NATO began a Long Term Study to examine post-Cold War strategy and structure. Recommendations from the study for a new, streamlined structure emerged in 1996. The European and Atlantic commands were to be retained, but the number of major commands in Europe was to be cut from three to two, Regional Command North Europe and Regional Command South Europe. Activation of the new RC SOUTH occurred in September 1999, and in March 2000 Headquarters AFNORTHWEST closed and the new RC NORTH was activated. The headquarters of the two Regional Commands were known as Regional Headquarters South (RHQ South) and RHQ NORTH respectively. Each was to supervise air, naval, and land commands for their region as well as a number of Joint Subregional Commands (JSRCs). Among the new JSRCs was
Joint Headquarters Southwest A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...
, which was activated in Madrid in September 1999.


Organizations and agencies

Prior to the reorganization, the NATO website listed 43 different agencies and organizations and five project committees/offices as of 15 May 2008. including: * Logistics committees, organizations and agencies, including: **
NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (french: L'Agence OTAN de soutien et d'acquisition ), abbreviated to NSPA, is the main logistics and procurement agency of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and is the executive branch of the ''N ...
**
Central Europe Pipeline System The Central Europe Pipeline System (alternatively Central European Pipeline System), or CEPS for short, is one of several NATO Pipeline Systems and is used to deliver fuel for air and ground vehicles around Europe. Originally conceived for milita ...
** NATO Pipeline System * Production Logistics organizations, agencies, and offices including the
NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency The NATO Eurofighter 2000 and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA) is the prime customer and management body for the four-state Eurofighter Typhoon Weapon System programme. Its offices are located in Hallbergmoos, Germany and it is staffed by civilian ...
* Standardisation organization, committee, office, and agency including the NATO Standardization Agency which also plays an important role in the global arena of standards determination. * Civil Emergency Planning committees and center * Air Traffic Management and Air Defence committees, working groups organization and center including the: ** NATO ACCS Management Agency (NACMA), based in Brussels, manages around a hundred persons in charge of the Air Control and Command System ( ACCS) due for 2009. **
NATO Programming Centre The NATO Programming Centre (NPC) is part of the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA). The NPC is responsible for system support and maintenance of the Air Command and Control Systems (Air C2). The centre is located in Glons, a villa ...
* The
NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Programme Management Organisation The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental military alliance between 30 Member sta ...
(NAPMO) * NATO Consultation, Command and Control Organisation (
NC3O The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Organization (NC3O) was formed in 1996. Its main objective is to provide a coherent, secure and interoperable C3 capability to the NATO. The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Board (NATO C3 Board or N ...
) ** NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A), reporting to the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Organization (NC3O). This agency was formed when the
SHAPE Technical Centre The SHAPE Technical Centre or Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Technical Centre (STC) was formerly known as the SHAPE Air Defence Technical Centre (SADTC). It was formed in 1955 and located in The Hague, Netherlands. It conducted rese ...
(STC) in
The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
(Netherlands) merged in 1996 with the NATO Communications and Information Systems Operating and Support Agency (NACISA) based in Brussels (Belgium). The agency comprises around 650 staff, of which around 400 are located in The Hague and 250 in Brussels. ** NATO Communications and Information Systems Services Agency (NCSA), based in
Mons Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...
(BEL), was established in August 2004 from the former NATO Communications and Information Systems Operating and Support Agency (NACISA). **NATO Headquarters C3 Staff (NHQC3S), which supports the North Atlantic Council, Military Committee, International Staff, and the International Military Staff. *
NATO Electronic Warfare Advisory Committee The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two Nor ...
(NEWAC) *
Military Committee Meteorological Group A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
(MCMG) * The Military Oceanography Group (MILOC) *
NATO Research and Technology Organisation The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
(RTO), * Education and Training college, schools and group * Project Steering Committees and Project Offices, including: **Alliance Ground Surveillance Capability Provisional Project Office (AGS/PPO) **Battlefield Information Collection and Exploitation System (BICES) **NATO Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle Support Office (CALS) **NATO FORACS Office **
Munitions Safety Information Analysis Center Introduction Munitions Safety Information Analysis Center, also referred to as MSIAC, is a NATO project funded directly by its member nations, not all of which are NATO members. There are currently 16 member nations: Australia, Belgium, Canada, ...
(MSIAC) * Committee of Chiefs of Military Medical Services in NATO ( COMEDS)


See also

* Foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration#NATO *
History of the Common Security and Defence Policy This article outlines the history of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the European Union (EU), a part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The post-war period saw several short-lived or ill-fated initiatives for Euro ...
, of the European Union *
Able Archer 83 Able Archer 83 was the annual NATO Able Archer exercise conducted in November 1983. The purpose for the command post exercise, like previous years, was to simulate a period of conflict escalation, culminating in the US military attaining a simu ...
*
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...
, the Soviet opposition


References

''attribution'': contains content originally in the
Nato The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
article.


General bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* Asmus, Ronald D. "Europe's Eastern Promise: rethinking NATO and EU enlargement." ''Foreign Affairs'' (2008): 95-10
online
* Asmus, Ronald D. ''Opening NATO’s Door. How the Alliance Remade Itself for a New Era'' (2002) * Axelrod, Robert, and Silvia Borzutzky. "NATO and the war on terror: The organizational challenges of the post 9/11 world." ''Review of International Organizations'' 1.3 (2006): 293–307
online
* Baylis, John. ''The Diplomacy of Pragmatism: Britain and the Formation of NATO, 1942-1949'' (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1993). * Caddis, John. "History, grand strategy and NATO enlargement." ''Survival'' (2007) 40:1, 145-151, DOI: 10.1093/survival/40.1.145 * Chourchoulis, Dionysios. ''The Southern Flank of NATO, 1951–1959: Military Strategy or Political Stabilization'' (Lexington Books, 2014). * Colbourn, Susan. "NATO as a political alliance: continuities and legacies in the enlargement debates of the 1990s." ''International Politics'' (2020): 1-18. * Cornish, Paul: ''Partnership in Crisis: The US, Europe and the Fall and Rise of NATO'' (Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1997). * Gallagher, Tom. "Balkan But Different: Romania and Bulgaria's Contrasting Paths to NATO Membership 1994–2002." ''Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics'' 20.4 (2004): 1-19. * Grosser, Alfred. ''The Western Alliance: European-American Relations Since 1945'' (1980). * Hanrieder, Wolfram F. ''Germany, America, Europe: Forty Years of German Foreign Policy'' (Yale UP, 1989). * Hatzivassiliou, Evanthis. ''Nato and Western Perceptions of the Soviet Bloc: Alliance Analysis and Reporting, 1951-69'' (Routledge, 2014). * Hawes, Derek. "Enduring alliance: a history of NATO and the post-war global order," ''Journal of Contemporary European Studies'' (2019), DOI: 10.1080/14782804.2019.1657731 * Hendrickson, Ryan C. "NATO’s next secretary general: Rasmussen’s leadership legacy for Jens Stoltenberg." ''Journal of Transatlantic Studies'' 14.3 (2016): 237-251. * Heuser, Beatrice. ''NATO, Britain, France, and the FRG: Nuclear Strategies and Forces for Europe, 1949-2000'' (St. Martin’s Press, 1997). * Hofmann, Stephanie C. "Party preferences and institutional transformation: revisiting France’s relationship with NATO (and the common wisdom on Gaullism)." ''Journal of Strategic Studies'' 40.4 (2017): 505-531. * Johnston, Seth A. ''How NATO adapts: strategy and organization in the Atlantic Alliance since 1950'' (JHU Press, 2017). * Kaplan, Lawrence S. ''NATO divided, NATO united: the evolution of an alliance'' (Greenwood, 2004). * Kaplan, Lawrence S. ''The United States and NATO: the formative years'' (UP of Kentucky, 2014
links
* Lundestad, Geir. "Empire by Invitation? The United States and Western Europe, 1945-1952." ''Journal of Peace Research'' 23.3 (1986): 263-277. * March, Peter R. ''Freedom of the Skies: An Illustrated History of Fifty Years of NATO Airpower'' (1999) * Miles, Simon. "The War Scare That Wasn't: Able Archer 83 and the Myths of the Second Cold War." ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' (Summer 2020) 22#3 pp 86–118.
Able Archer 83 Able Archer 83 was the annual NATO Able Archer exercise conducted in November 1983. The purpose for the command post exercise, like previous years, was to simulate a period of conflict escalation, culminating in the US military attaining a simu ...
was a routine NATO exercise in 1983. * Milloy, John C. ''The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1948-1957: Community or Alliance?'' (McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP, 2006). * Münch, Philipp. "Creating common sense: getting NATO to Afghanistan." ''Journal of Transatlantic Studies'' (2021): 1-2
online
in 2001. * NATO Office of Information and Press. '' NATO Handbook : Fiftieth Anniversary Edition'' (NATO, Brussels, 1998–99, Second Reprint), * “NATO at 70: Balancing Collective Defense and Collective Security,” Special issue of ''Journal of Transatlantic Studies'' 17#2 (June 2019) pp: 135–267. * Norris, John. ''Collision Course: NATO, Russia and Kosovo'' (2005) * Osgood, Robert E. ''NATO. The Entangling Alliance'' (1962). * Park, W. H. ''Defending the West: A History of NATO'' (Wheatsheaf Books, 1986
online
* Pedlow, Gregory W. "NATO and the Berlin Crisis of 1961: Facing the Soviets While Maintaining Unity" (US National Archives,. 2011); short essay; not copyright
online
* Perot, Elie. "The art of commitments: NATO, the EU, and the interplay between law and Politics within Europe’s collective defence architecture." ''European Security'' 28.1 (2019): 40-65. * Reid, Escott. ''Time of Fear and Hope. The Making of the North Atlantic Treaty 1947-1949'' (McClelland & Stewart, 1977). * Risso, Linda. ''Propaganda and intelligence in the cold war: The NATO information service'' (Routledge, 2014). * Riste, Olav, ed. ''Western Security. The Formative Years. European and Atlantic Defence 1947-1953.'' (Norwegian UP, 1985). * Sayle, Timothy Andrews. ''Enduring Alliance: A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order'' (Cornell UP, 2019
online review
* Schmidt, Gustav, ed. ''A History of NATO: The First Fifty Years'' (3 vol, Palgrave, 2001), with 60 contributors. * Smith, E. Timothy. ''The United States, Italy and NATO, 1947-52'' (1991). * Smith, Joseph. ''The Origins of NATO'' (Liverpool University Press, 1990) * Till, Geoffrey. "Holding the bridge in troubled times: the Cold War and the navies of Europe." ''Journal of Strategic Studies'' 28.2 (2005): 309-337.


Historiography

* Békés, Csaba. "The Bibliography of New Cold War History." (2nd ed. Cold War History Research Center, Budapest, 2018
online
350pp. * Dülffer, Jost. "Cold War history in Germany." ''Cold War History'' 8.2 (2008): 135-156. * Kaplan, Lawrence S. "The Cold War and European Revisionism." ''Diplomatic History'' 11.2 (1987): 143-156. * Mariager, Rasmus. "Danish Cold War Historiography." ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' 20.4 (2019): 180-211. * Mastny, Vojtech. "The new history of Cold War alliances." ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' 4.2 (2002): 55-84. * Olesen, Thorsten B., ed. ''The Cold War and the Nordic countries: Historiography at a crossroads'' (University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004).


Primary sources


"NATO Strategy Documents" 1949-1969"


External links

* * * {{NATO