Concept in Definition ABC

NATO is the abbreviated acronym for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; it is an international organization with fundamentally military and political characteristics. Its original name in English is North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

International organization that brings together American and European countries of the northern hemisphere and that had in its beginnings the missions of reorganizing Europe after the war and limiting the advance of the USSR

NATO was founded in the year 1949 by the signatory countries of the Treaty of Brussels: Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Holland and the United Kingdom, plus the United States, Canada and five other European nations invited, Denmark, Italy, Norway. Iceland and Portugal.

The main mission that NATO had and was imposed at that time was to deal with the European organization after the Second World War in the face of the growing threat that supposed at that moment the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Those European and American countries located in the northern hemisphere that felt threatened by the increasing dominance that the Soviet Union was gaining in Eastern Europe decided to unite against it and create a front common for implement policies that benefit them to the detriment of the USSR.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, NATO had to reformulate several of its objectives and activities, taking care from that moment, pre-eminently, to preserve the safety across the northern hemisphere.

Although the inclusion of members, but on the contrary, progressively more allies were joining the cause of NATO. Greece and Turkey in 1952, the Federal Republic German in 1955, Spain in 1982; Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in 1999, in 2004 it would be the turn of Bulgaria, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Lithuania, and Slovenia; and the last, in 2009, would be Croatia and Albania.

Headquarters and authorities

NATO's headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, while its military headquarters are in Mons, Belgium. The current secretary general is NorwegianJens stoltenberg, who was Prime Minister of Norway between 2005 and 2013.

Its internal structure precisely places the aforementioned secretary general in the highest position, then continues in hierarchy the vice-secretary, a position currently held by the Italian diplomat Alessandro Minute-Rizzo.

At a lower hierarchical level but no less relevant and substantial because they allow it to efficiently develop its activity, the Military Committee and the command regions with their respective leaders such as the Supreme Allied Commander of Transformation, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Atlantic and the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

Through the logistical means available to the allied countries, NATO is in charge of organizing and uniting its members.

Participation in the Balkan War

In 1989, after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, NATO played an active role in the Yugoslavian War or also called the Balkan War, which took place between 1989 and 1999.

These armed conflicts that confronted the various ethnic groups of Yugoslavia, on the one hand the Serbs, and on the other the Bosnians, Albanians and Croats, would end with the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the independence of the following territories: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

They joined factors political, economic, cultural with a growing religious and ethnic tension between the aforementioned groups and the decision to abolish the autonomy of Kosovo.

We cannot ignore that the balance of this confrontation was tremendous for the region given that much of the former Yugoslavia was immersed in poverty, disorganization and chaos.

Don't get involved in wars

Of course, this result so dire that it could be appreciated with horror communication massive, put NATO in the eye of the storm. The criticism against him rained down and ended with a new rethinking of action: to have a presence that does not imply a leading role in military incursions.

On the other hand and after the regrettable terrorist attacks perpetrated the 11 S In the United States and the subsequent American invasion of Afghanistan, NATO has been seen to play a special role designed by the UN that was formally referred to as Force International Security Assistance (ISAF). The same force also timely acted on Iraq, although with a intervention much more limited training the country's security forces, without getting involved in the war, as a consequence that many members of NATO did not agree with the invasion in this country promoted by the United States and the Kingdom United.

Issues in NATO