NATO

The **North Atlantic Treaty Organization** (sometimes known as the **North Atlantic Alliance**, the **Atlantic Alliance** or the **Western Alliance**), also simply called **NATO**, is a military alliance that is mostly in Europe and North America. Its other official name means the same in French: _Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord_ (_OTAN_).

It was established by the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed in Washington, DC, United States, on April 4, 1949. Its headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium.

## Languages

NATO has two official languages, English and French, as defined in Article 14 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

## History

Its members when it was founded on 4 April 1949 were the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. On 18 February 1952, Greece and Turkey also joined.

When West Germany joined on 9 May 1955, it was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by Norwegian Foreign Minister Halvard Lange. The Warsaw Pact was signed on 14 May 1955 by the Soviet Union and its satellite states as a defense to NATO.

Iceland threatened to leave during the 1970s Cod Wars, which would put the United Kingdom at fault, and NATO would lose a key position in the North Atlantic. Iceland won the Cod Wars and did not end up leaving.

After the Cold War ended, three former communist countries, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, joined NATO in 1999. On 29 March 2004, seven more Northern and Eastern European countries joined NATO: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Croatia and Albania received invitation for NATO membership on 3 April 2008. The Republic of Macedonia received only a conditional invitation because a full invitation was vetoed by Greece over a naming dispute.

Montenegro joined on 5 June 2017.  Having changed its name to end its dispute with Greece,
North Macedonia joined NATO on 27 March 2020 and became its 30th member.
Ireland became an observer of NATO on 8 September 2020.

In April 2023, Finland joined NATO, following efforts to join since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sweden joined NATO in March 2024.

## Membership

Here are the 32 NATO members:

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|{|class="wikitable collapsible collapsed skin-nightmode-reset-color" style="background:white; color:inherit; border:1px solid white;"|style="border:0; width:2em;"||style="border:0;"|**NATO members**|style="border:0; width:2em;"||style="border:0;"|**Membership Action Plan**|style="border:0; width:2em;"||style="border:0;"|**Enhanced Opportunities Partners**|style="border:0; width:2em;"||style="border:0;"|**Individual Partnership Action Plan**|style="border:0; width:2em;"||style="border:0;"|**Partnership for Peace**|style="border:0; width:2em;"||style="border:0;"|**Mediterranean Dialogue**|style="border:0; width:2em;"||style="border:0;"|**Istanbul Cooperation Initiative**|style="border:0; width:2em;"||style="border:0;"|**Global Partners**|
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## Partnership For Peace

NATO also has a program called the Partnership for Peace (PfP), which is a program of cooperation between NATO and partner countries in/near Europe. the program includes Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malta, Moldova, Serbia, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

## Related pages

- United Nations

## Further reading

<div class="references-small">
- Asmus, Ronald D. _Opening NATO's Door: How the Alliance Remade Itself for a New Era_ Columbia U. Press, 2002. 372 pp.
- Bacevich, Andrew J. and Cohen, Eliot A. _War over Kosovo: Politics and Strategy in a Global Age._ Columbia U. Press, 2002. 223 pp.
- Eisenhower, Dwight D. _The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower. Vols. 12 and 13: NATO and the Campaign of 1952_: Louis Galambos et al., ed. Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1989. 1707 pp. in 2 vol.
- Daclon, Corrado Maria _Security through Science: Interview with Jean Fournet, Assistant Secretary-General of NATO_, Analisi Difesa, 2004. no. 42
- Ganser, Daniele _Natos Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe_,
- Gearson, John and Schake, Kori, ed. _The Berlin Wall Crisis: Perspectives on Cold War Alliances_ Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. 209 pp.
- Gheciu, Alexandra. _NATO in the 'New Europe_' Stanford University Press, 2005. 345 pp.
- Hendrickson, Ryan C. _Diplomacy and War at NATO: The Secretary-General and Military Action After the Cold War_ Univ. of Missouri Press, 2006. 175 pp.
- Hunter, Robert. "The European Security and Defense Policy: NATO's Companion - Or Competitor?" RAND National Security Research Division, 2002. 206 pp.
- Jordan, Robert S. _Norstad: Cold War NATO Supreme Commander - Airman, Strategist, Diplomat_ St. Martin's Press, 2000. 350 pp.
- Kaplan, Lawrence S. _The Long Entanglement: NATO's First Fifty Years._ Praeger, 1999. 262 pp.
- Kaplan, Lawrence S. _NATO Divided, NATO United: The Evolution of an Alliance._ Praeger, 2004. 165 pp.
- Kaplan, Lawrence S., ed. _American Historians and the Atlantic Alliance._ Kent State U. Press, 1991. 192 pp.
- Lambeth, Benjamin S. _NATO's Air War in Kosovo: A Strategic and Operational Assessment_ Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND, 2001. 250 pp.
- Létourneau, Paul. _Le Canada et l'OTAN après 40 ans, 1949–1989_ Quebec: Cen. Québécois de Relations Int., 1992. 217 pp.
- Maloney, Sean M. _Securing Command of the Sea: NATO Naval Planning, 1948–1954._ Naval Institute Press, 1995. 276 pp.
- John C. Milloy. _North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, 1948–1957: Community or Alliance?_ (2006), focus on non-military issues
- Powaski, Ronald E. _The Entangling Alliance: The United States and European Security, 1950–1993._ Greenwood, 1994. 261 pp.
- Ruane, Kevin. _The Rise and Fall of the European Defense Community: Anglo-American Relations and the Crisis of European Defense, 1950–55_ Palgrave, 2000. 252 pp.
- Sandler, Todd and Hartley, Keith. _The Political Economy of NATO: Past, Present, and into the 21st Century._ Cambridge U. Press, 1999. 292 pp.
- Smith, Jean Edward, and Canby, Steven L._The Evolution of NATO with Four Plausible Threat Scenarios_. Canada Department of Defense: Ottawa, 1987. 117 pp.
- Smith, Joseph, ed. _The Origins of NATO_ Exeter, UK U. of Exeter Press, 1990. 173 pp.
- Telo, António José. _Portugal e a NATO: O Reencontro da Tradiçoa Atlântica _ Lisbon: Cosmos, 1996. 374 pp.
- Zorgbibe, Charles. _Histoire de l'OTAN_ Brussels: Complexe, 2002. 283 pp.
</div>

## Other websites

- NATO Official Website
- Basic NATO Documents

## Infobox (organization)

- **name**: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
_Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord_
- **image**: NATO flag.svg
- **motto**: _Animus in consulendo liber_
<small>In English: _A mind unfettered in deliberation_</small>
- **caption**: Flag of NATO
- **map**: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (orthographic projection).svg
- **mcaption**: NATO countries shown in green
- **type**: Military alliance
- **headquarters**: Brussels, Belgium
- **language**: English language, English, French language, French
- **leader title**: Secretary General of NATO, Secretary General
- **leader name**: Mark Rutte
- **formation**: 4 April 1949
- **website**: <div class="plainlinksneverexpand">https://www.nato.int/</div>