NATO & the Warsaw Pact

NATO & The Warsaw Pact

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organization for defense collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1949. Its headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium.

The Warsaw Pact (1955–91) was the informal name for the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, that bound eight communist states in Eastern Europe for mutual defense treaty subscribed to by. It was established at the USSR’s initiative and finalized on May 14, 1955, in Warsaw, Poland.

Purpose

The core of NATO is Article V of the NATO Treaty, which states:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all. Consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

This provision was intended so that if the USSR and its allies launched an attack against any of the NATO members, it would be treated as if it was an attack on all member states. This marked a significant change for the United States, which had traditionally favoured isolationist policies. However, the feared invasion of Western Europe never came. For 36 years, NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations never directly waged war against each other in Europe; but the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies implemented strategic policies aimed at the containment of each other in Europe, while working and fighting for influence within the wider Cold War on the international stage. The first time the NATO treaty was enacted was on September 12, 2001, in response to the September 11th attacks on the United States.

Chronology of events

·  March 17, 1948: Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg (the Benelux countries), France, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the NATO Agreement.

·  April 4, 1949: North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, DC.

·  May 14, 1955: Warsaw Pact treaty is signed in Warsaw by the Soviet Union and its satellite states (including East Germany) as a formal response to NATO's incorporation of West Germany in the same year. Both organizations were opposing sides in the Cold War. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the Warsaw Pact disintegrated & many joined nations joined NATO.

Member states

Founding NATO members (April 4, 1949)

·  Belgium

·  Canada

·  Denmark

·  France

·  Iceland

·  Italy

·  Luxembourg

·  Netherlands

·  Norway

·  Portugal

·  United Kingdom

·  United States

States that joined during the Cold War

·  Greece (1952)

·  Turkey (1952)

·  Germany (1955 as West Germany)

·  Spain (1982)

Warsaw Pact Nations

·  Albania

·  Bulgaria (accepted into NATO in 2004)

·  Czechoslovakia (accepted into NATO in 2004)

·  East Germany

·  Hungary (accepted into NATO in 1999)

·  Poland (accepted into NATO in 1999)

·  Romania (accepted into NATO in 2004)

·  Russia

Debate about its future

The future of NATO is currently under debate. The main issues are:

·  The necessity. The crumbling of the main "enemy of the west" in Eastern Europe removed for many observers the necessity of a collective defense organization. The debate about the necessity of NATO has increased due to dissension between members about the American led invasion of Iraq, makes some wonder (largely in North America) whether NATO has not become obsolete. The presumed threat of terrorism could give the institution a new life, but some think also that fighting terrorists needs a completely different political and military organization, as well as completely different weapon systems to those on which NATO was built.

·  An obstacle to European integration. Many argue that NATO is in conflict with the prospects of deeper European integration in the fields of foreign policy and security within the framework of the EU institutions. Some advocates for a strong EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) would like to see NATO dismantled and a common defense and foreign policy created within the existing EU institutions. In November 2004, after the re-election of United States President George W. Bush, the Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik publicly discussed whether Norway would benefit from strengthening her defense relations with the EU. Many Norwegian political analysts consider NATO to be a "politically dead organization". So do several pundits and political leaders in other member nations. These attitudes will of necessity be reflected in future discussions of NATO expansion.

Map Activity

Instructions: utilize the map below and a map in the textbook to complete the activity.

1.  Label and color all countries that were members of either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. Use two different colors for each organization.

2.  Then label and color any nation that was not either a member of NATO or the Warsaw Pact, but was a member of the United Nations (UN).

3.  Create a map key to identify the differences between the countries.