Nations Flags: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Flag of NATO

In 1948, The United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Brussels. Something which many people saw as a precursor to the birth of NATO. However, the Soviet Union proved to be an amazing threat, and led to the Treaty of Brussels nations enter into negotiations with the United States.

In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty came into force, binding The United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United States to mutual defence. This also brought in Iceland, Norway,. Canada, Portugal, Denmark, and Italy.

In 1952, Greece and Turkey joined the Alliance, then in 1955, West Germany joined. Whilst it was politically controversial, militarily it made a lot of sense as Germany could field quite a sizeable regular army, bulking the number of troops available to NATO command. This act led to the Soviet Union forming the Warsaw Pact with many Eastern European nations.

In 1982, NATO grew again with the admission of Spain.

NATO went all the way through the Cold War without getting involved in any actual fighting. Even with Britain being involved in military conflict with Argentina during the Falklands War, NATO did not get involved, as it was limited to conflicts in the North Atlantic, and European theatres.

With the fall of the Cold War, and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, we have seen an expansion of NATO with many ex-communist nations looking to join the alliance. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, East Germany joined NATO once it reunified with West Germany. Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary joined in 1999, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria all opted to join.

The final round of expansion happened in 2009, with the admittance of Croatia and Albania.

Currently, NATO is in dialogue with Macedonia, and Montenegro, is in negotiations with Bosnia, as well as beginning to talk to Ukraine, and Georgia. However, the Ukraine may not push its application after voting for a pro-Russian president recently. Should all these nations be admitted, it leaves almost all of Europe under the NATO umbrella.

The flag of NATO was created in 1953, a blue field charged with a white compass rose from which eminate 4 white lines.