![]() On the western side, Thatcher and Reagan tried to match that, and there was a new arms race. It was very influential and invaded Afghanistan in 1979. The Soviet Union at that point was regarded as more aggressive than it had been in the 1960s and 1970s. We then get to the late 1970s and things started to deteriorate. There was a period in the 1970s that became known as ‘détente’, when the NATO powers negotiated with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact tried to consolidate and stabilise the situation. NATO acquired very few new members during the Cold War-Greece, West Germany and Turkey in the early 1950s Spain in the mid-1980s-but the division of Europe was solid and it seemed like the Cold War would last forever. There was quite a lot of discussion about the intricacies of nuclear strategy and conventional deterrence. That remained pretty much the picture for the next 40 years. “Without NATO as a framework, the individual efforts of the allies would be less effective” #MARK WEBBER ACTOR KIDS SERIES#So, as they say, the ‘O’ in NATO-the organisation-was formed a year after the treaty with the consolidation of a series of committees, a command structure, and a strategy and military doctrine. Within a year of the treaty being signed, the Korean War happened, which gave a shot in the arm to the need of bringing things together within a permanent structure. NATO, in a sense, consolidated western defence, with an American and Canadian guarantee of west European security. But the main concern was Germany, the division of Germany and the possibility of Soviet ambition against West Germany-and, to a lesser degree, NATO allies like Italy and Norway. Some of the early crises were to do with Turkey and Greece. And not just western Europe, but also Turkey and Greece in the south. It was determined to fend off the possibility of Soviet aggression and destabilisation against Europe. So NATO’s mission, in some ways, was very clear cut for the following 40 years, during the Cold War. NATO was created in order to deal with what was regarded as the threat of Soviet Communism.Īt that point, the division of Europe was already pretty evident. Just 12 originally: the United States, Canada, and countries in western Europe. The treaty was signed in 1949, among a much smaller number of countries than the 30 members of today. The fourth of April was the 73rd anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty, which is the basis upon which NATO as an organization was formed. Would you give us a concise introduction? Now, given the backdrop to our conversation, the ongoing war in Ukraine, it seems a good time for people to examine what NATO is, exactly, and its history. But these are for someone who wants to read for enjoyment and understanding.Īgreed. If I were setting a syllabus for, say, a summer school on NATO, I would probably have chosen different texts. I think you want to make clear that this is a reading list aimed at the common reader: an intelligent lay person. Thank you for selecting five of the best books on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the body commonly known as NATO. Foreign Policy & International Relations. ![]()
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