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Despite an identity crisis and a visible drop in influence, NATO – a 28-member state military alliance dominated by the USA – is the most powerful military structure in today’s world and remains in operation despite numerous controversies: it has become obsolete after the Cold War, it has waged an illegal aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999, it was divided over the war  in Iraq and enlargement, and it became in 2010 the main security threat for Russia.

CHRONOLOGY

NATO – a short history

1949 Twelve countries of Europe and Northern America (the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, Iceland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Norway and Portugal) sign the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, the founding act of NATO..

1952 Greece and Turkey join NATO

1955 Western Germany joins NATO

1955 Formation of the Warsaw Pact, under the domination of the USSR

1966 French President Charles de Gaulle announces that France will retreat from the joint military structures of NATO, dissatisfied with the treatment of France within NATO, in particular by the dominance of the USA.

1967 Following De Gaulle’s decision, NATO’s headquarters moves from France to Belgium

1982 Spain joins NATO

1990 Germa reunification

1991 Warsaw Pact dismantles

1993 NATO patrols the skies over Bosnia and Herzegovina

1994 First countries join the Partnership for Peace programme, aimed at establishing links with countries of the former Warsaw Pact

1995 Bombing of Serbs in Bosnia, first NATO military action, carried out outside the NATO membership zone

1995 NATO establishes its first mission in Bosnia (the Implementation Force – IFOR)

1996 NATO replaces IFOR with SFOR (the Stabilisation Force)

1999 Bombing of Yugoslavia over Kosovo, without UN authorization, second NATO military action

1999 First countries of the former Eastern Bloc – the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland – become NATO members at the Washington summit, held during the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia

1999 NATO mission to Kosovo established following the end of tha bombings (Kosovo Force – KFOR)

2001 For the first time in its history, NATO applies Article 5 of the North Atlantic agrement (collective defense), but the USA decide not to implicate NATO in military operations in Afghanistan

2003 Division within NATO over the veto by France, Belgium adn Luxemourg on the US proposal to provide military support to Turkey, ahead of the war in Iraq.

2003 NATO begins its first operation outsde Europe, in Afghanistan (International Security Assistance Force – ISAF)

2004 Seven new countries join NATO: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.

2004 The Kosovo Albanians carry out an ethnic cleansing campaign of Kosovo Serbs in front of the eyes of impotent Kfor

2004 End of NATO mission in Bosnia, replaced by the EU mission (EUFOR)

2007 NATO support to the Ahtisaari plan

2007 NATO provides logistical support to African Union troops in Somalia

2008 NATO decides to train the so-called Kosovo Security Force, a nucleus of a future Kosovo Albanian army, in accordance with the Ahtisaari plan

2009 Albania and Croatia become members of NATO, bringing the number to 28.

2009 French President Nicolas Sarkozy decides to bring France back to the NATO joint military structure.

2009 NATO okeys the MAP – Membership Action Plan – for Montenegro

2010 NATO gives provisional okey to the Bosnian MAP. The condition involves further centralization of Bosnia, opposed by the Bosnian Serbs.

KEY CONTROVERSIES

NATO AS A „RELICT OF THE PAST”

Founded as an organization opposing the Soviet Bloc, NATO has to a large extent lost its substance following the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact two decades ago. Since then NATO is struggling to find a new role for itself, but it has been criticized for being a „relict of the past”.

AGGRESSIVE OPERATIONS

Alhtough formed as defansive mechanism for the protection of member states, in the 1990s, NATO has received an aggressive, offensive role, and has intervened for the first time outside it borders during the war in Bosnia and during the aggression against Yugoslavia. These interventions paved the way for further NATO actions far away from the border of its member countries.

RUSSOPHOBIA

Although the Warsaw Pact has been dismantled, the US and its NATO partners are continuing to threaten the security of Russia through the policy of enlargement and plans for establishing new missile shield. Moscow decided to react by proclaining such policy the biggest threat to its security.

DOMINATION OF US INTERESTS

Although it is nominally an alliance of „equals”, NATO has been widely accepted as a military alliance of Western countries under the domination of one global superpower, the US – which is the architect, the main financial donor and the main military contributor – without which agreement no decision could be brought, and which interests and decisions can hardly be resisted.

ILLEGAL ACTIONS AND NO ACCOUNTIBILITY

Despite the fact that NATO troops have been responsible for thousands of killed innocent civilians, in the Balkans and in Afghanistan, the Alliance is succeeding to avoid any criminal charges for war crimes.  NATO has, furthermore, never been taken accountable for the fact that it bombed Serbia in 1999 in an illegal action, undertaked without the consent of the UN Security Council.