The organization, sealed by the North Atlantic Treaty (abbreviated as NATO), which also has the name of the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance. NATO, which has 28 states bordering the northern Atlantic Ocean (namely Canada, the United States, Turkey and most members of the European Union), was created to protect its freedoms. In its treaty, signed in Washington on April 4, 1949 and justifying what NATO is, it is stated that an armed attack on one of the alliance members should be considered an attack on everyone.
The Alliance advocates for the rule of law, democracy, individual freedom, and the peaceful resolution of disputes and promotes such values in the Euro-Atlantic region. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
So what is NATO? This is a forum in which the countries of Europe and North America have the opportunity to consult with each other on security issues of mutual interest, and to take joint measures to address these issues. In recent years, NATO’s goal has expanded and now includes protection against weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and cyber attacks. The fight against terrorism was included in the alliance's priorities after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in September 2001, which is considered an attack on the United States.
To better understand what NATO is, let's turn to history. The military bloc was created after the Second World War ended, within the framework of the United Nations. Its main goal was to protect member countries from a large number of troops of communist countries. Further, the history of NATO developed during the Cold War, when the organization’s mission expanded to prevent
nuclear war. After joining the block of West Germany, the communist countries, including the USSR, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany, formed the Warsaw Pact alliance. In response, NATO adopted a policy of massive retaliation, promising to use nuclear weapons in the event of an attack.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and also after the collapse of the USSR, NATO-Russia relations began to be based on bilateral cooperation. In 2002, the Russia-NATO Council was established to regulate common security issues. Alliance highest priority
became a mission in Afghanistan. For the success of the peacekeeping mission, the organization even asked for help from its main competitor, Russia.
Over the many years of its existence, NATO has become stronger and strengthened ties between members. The treaty itself served as the basis and model for other international collective security treaties. Today, the question of what NATO is can be answered with confidence: this is one of the most successful defensive alliances of all time, which currently affects the scenario of various world changes. Our future world is filled with known and unknown threats. NATO can act as a beacon in the open sea of various dangers.
