NATO

"OTAN" redirects here. For other uses, see NATO (disambiguation) and OTAN (disambiguation).

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord
AbbreviationNATO
OTAN
Formation4 April 1949 (75 years ago) (1949-04-04)
TypeMilitary alliance
HeadquartersBrussels, Belgium
Membership
Official languages
Mark Rutte[3]
Rob Bauer
Christopher G. Cavoli
Philippe Lavigne
Expenses (2023)Total: US$1.264 trillion
Excluding the US: US$404 billion[4]
Websitenato.int
Anthem: "The NATO Hymn"
Motto: "Animus in consulendo liber"

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO /ˈneɪtoʊ/ NAY-toh; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949.[5][6] NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. The organization's motto is animus in consulendo liber (Latin for 'a mind unfettered in deliberation').[7] The organization's strategic concepts include deterrence.[8]

NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium, while NATO's military headquarters are near Mons, Belgium. The alliance has increased its NATO Response Force deployments in Eastern Europe,[9] and the combined militaries of all NATO members include around 3.5 million soldiers and personnel.[10] All member states together cover an area of 25.07 million km2 (9.68 million sq. mi.) with a population of about 973 million people.[11] Their combined military spending as of 2022 constituted around 55 percent of the global nominal total.[12] Moreover, members have agreed to reach or maintain the target defence spending of at least two percent of their GDP by 2024.[13][14]

NATO formed with twelve founding members and has added new members ten times, most recently when Sweden joined the alliance on 7 March 2024.[15] In addition, NATO recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring members.[5] Enlargement has led to tensions with non-member Russia, one of the 18 additional countries participating in NATO's Partnership for Peace programme. Another nineteen countries are involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes with NATO.

  1. ^ "Final Communiqué". www.nato.int. 17 September 1949. Archived from the original on 6 December 2006. Retrieved 2 March 2024. English and French shall be the official languages for the entire North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
  2. ^ NATO (4 April 1949). "The North Atlantic Treaty". NATO. Archived from the original on 14 September 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2024. This Treaty, of which the English and French texts are equally authentic.
  3. ^ NATO. "Mark Rutte takes office as NATO Secretary General". NATO. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  4. ^ "Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014–2023)" (PDF). NATO. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 July 2023. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  5. ^ a b "What is NATO?". NATO – Homepage. n.d. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  6. ^ Cook, Lorne (25 May 2017). "NATO, the world's biggest military alliance, explained". Military Times. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  7. ^ "Animus in consulendo liber". NATO. Archived from the original on 9 January 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  8. ^ Szenes, Zoltan (2023). "Szenes, Zoltan. "Reinforcing deterrence: assessing NATO's 2022 Strategic Concept." Defense & Security Analysis 39.4 (2023): 539–560". Defense & Security Analysis. 39 (4). doi:10.1080/14751798.2023.2270230.
  9. ^ "NATO to accelerate deployment of up to 300,000 soldiers on eastern border". Ukrainska Pravda. Archived from the original on 19 March 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  10. ^ Batchelor, Tom (9 March 2022). "Where are Nato troops stationed and how many are deployed across Europe?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  11. ^ "[1] Archived 9 March 2024 at the Wayback Machine." worlddata.info. Retrieved on 15 September 2024. "Members of the NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization."
  12. ^ "World military expenditure reaches new record high as European spending surges". SIPRI. 24 April 2023. Archived from the original on 28 April 2023. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  13. ^ NATO. "The Wales Declaration on the Transatlantic Bond". NATO. Archived from the original on 10 June 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  14. ^ Erlanger, Steven (26 March 2014). "Europe Begins to Rethink Cuts to Military Spending". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2014. Last year, only a handful of NATO countries met the target, according to NATO figures, including the United States, at 4.1 percent, and Britain, at 2.4 percent.
  15. ^ "Notification Reference No. 2024-008" (PDF). United States Department of State. 7 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 March 2024. Retrieved 7 March 2024.