NATO

origin and role

• formed in 1949 after signing of Washington treaty

• article 5 of NATO is attack on one is an attack on all

• only triggered once after 911

• designs made by consensus meaning consultations take place until a decision that is acceptable is reached

NATOs changing role

• first made as a defence against the USSR and its alliance the Warsaw pact

• after the end of the USSR in 1991 NATO reinvented itself in 3 ways

• peacekeeping and humanitarian intervention for example 77 days of airstrikes to remove Serbian troops from Kosovo

• expansion over Europe

• western expansion

strengths of NATO

• worlds most powerful military 70 percent of global military spending USA is the main spender 569bn spent compared to Russia’s 53.2bnin 2014 all members agreed to put military spending to at 2 percent of gdp although the average is only 1.49 percent

• NATO achieved its goal of protecting western states during the cold war and can point to successes in bosnia and kosovo

weakness of NATO

• increased size makes decision making hard, it may become a tool of some member states to pursue their own aims

• Russia sees the eastern expansion as an attempt by the USA to encircle Russia. NATO strategy may have caused the annexation of Crimea

• NATO is overly reliant on the US provides 67 percent of budget caused Americans to say Europe isn’t pulling its weight

• NATO suffers from controversial missions in Afghanistan and libya