A History of NATO

Podcast Transcript

In the years following the end of the Second World War, the post-war world that many in the West hoped for never materialized.

Their former ally, the Soviet Union, turned from friend to foe. They installed puppet communist governments in all of the countries they occupied when pushing their way to Germany, and now the concern was that the Soviets would try to take over the rest of Europe.

In response, twelve nations in Western Europe and North America joined together in a military alliance, the likes of which hadn’t been seen before in history.

Learn more about NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, how it formed, and how it evolved on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

In the aftermath of World War II, Europe’s political landscape was highly unstable.

Much of Western Europe lay in ruins, communist movements were gaining influence, and the Soviet Union had established control over Eastern Europe, forming what Winston Churchill famously called the “Iron Curtain.”

The Western democracies, led by the United States, Britain, and France, recognized the need for a permanent military and political structure to guarantee security against potential Soviet aggression.

The Berlin Blockade of 1948–49, in which the Soviet Union tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin, underscored the urgency of such a defensive alliance.

The intellectual foundation for NATO can be traced to early postwar debates about how to prevent another global conflict and contain communism. British officials were among the first to articulate the need for a permanent Western security arrangement.

If you remember back to my episode on Operation Unthinkable, Winston Churchill had developed a plan to attack the Soviets at the end of the war, but never acted on it because the United States strongly opposed it.

Nonetheless, just a few years after Germany’s defeat, the Western countries realized that the world and their relationship with the Soviet Union had drastically changed.

In 1947, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg signed the Treaty of Brussels, creating the Western Union, a regional defense pact designed to promote mutual security and reconstruction.

However, its leaders, particularly British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin and his French counterpart Georges Bidault, soon realized that Western Europe alone lacked the strength to deter the Soviet Union. Bevin became one of NATO’s earliest and most forceful advocates, urging the inclusion of the United States and Canada to create a transatlantic alliance that could balance Soviet power.

Across the Atlantic, the Truman administration was initially cautious about joining a formal peacetime military alliance, something unprecedented in American history. But the intensifying Cold War, including events such as the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia in February 1948 and the Berlin Blockade beginning that June, convinced U.S. policymakers that American engagement was essential to the defense of Western democracy.

U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall and his successor, Dean Acheson, were key figures in building support within Washington for a collective security framework.

They worked closely with Canadian Foreign Minister Lester Pearson, who served as an important intermediary between the U.S. and European governments, emphasizing that the alliance would strengthen the newly formed United Nations rather than undermine it.

The actual proposal for what became the North Atlantic Treaty took shape in a series of diplomatic discussions in 1948–49 among Bevin, Bidault, Acheson, and Pearson.

Canada’s role was particularly significant in shaping the treaty’s legal and moral tone, ensuring it was framed not as a purely military pact but as a community of nations committed to democratic values, collective defense, and peaceful dispute resolution. This balanced approach made it easier to secure public and congressional support in the United States.

The North Atlantic Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949, in Washington, DC.

There were twelve original signatories to the treaty: the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, and Portugal.

There are several important provisions of the treaty.

Article 4 establishes the principle of consultation. It allows any member to call for discussions whenever its territorial integrity, political independence, or security is threatened. This ensures that the alliance can coordinate politically before a crisis escalates.

This has been enacted nine times in history.

Article 5 contains the famous collective defense clause. It declares that an armed attack against one or more members in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against all. Each ally then agrees to take such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain security.

It should be noted that Article 5 doesn’t require that anyone assist an ally militarily.

This article forms the heart of NATO’s deterrent power and has been formally invoked only once, after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Article 6 defines the geographic scope of Article 5. It specifies that an armed attack includes attacks on the territory of any member in Europe or North America, on islands under their jurisdiction, or on their forces, ships, or aircraft operating in those areas.

The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 convinced Western leaders that Soviet expansionism was a global threat. NATO responded by transforming from a political alliance into an integrated military organization. General Dwight Eisenhower became NATO’s first Supreme Allied Commander Europe in 1951.

Since then, every Supreme Allied Commander has been an American, to reflect the oversized contribution of the United States.

However, the political head of NATO, the Secretary General, is always a European civilian. This individual leads the NATO Secretariat, chairs the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s main decision-making body, and serves as NATO’s chief diplomat and spokesperson.

I should also emphasize the historic nature of the NATO alliance. It wasn’t just an alliance. There had been many of them throughout history. NATO was unique because it created a unified military command structure under multinational leadership, something no earlier alliance had ever attempted.

Instead of each nation merely promising to assist others in case of attack, NATO established a standing organization with joint planning, unified strategy, and a permanent headquarters.

Membership expanded during the early Cold War. Greece and Türkiye joined in 1952. West Germany entered in 1955, a landmark that anchored the new Federal Republic in Western institutions and reshaped European security. Spain joined in 1982 after it transitioned to democracy.

The Warsaw Pact, the communist counter to NATO, which was technically called the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, and will be the subject of its own episode, was formed in 1955.

As NATO matured, it developed standardized operational doctrines, communication systems, and procedures. The alliance adopted the NATO Standardization Agreements, which set uniform standards for everything from ammunition calibers and fuel types to map symbols and radio frequencies.

This ensured that forces from different countries could share supplies, communicate effectively, and operate each other’s equipment in combat. For instance, aircraft refueling systems, artillery shells, and logistics chains were progressively harmonized to prevent incompatibilities that had plagued earlier multinational coalitions.

Joint training became another pillar of integration. NATO organized large-scale multinational exercises such as Reforger, Northern Wedding, and Able Archer, which tested readiness, interoperability, and rapid reinforcement capabilities.

These exercises involved tens of thousands of troops from multiple member states and simulated real wartime conditions across air, land, and sea operations.

Regular officer exchanges and combined staff colleges, such as the NATO Defense College, founded in 1951, helped cultivate a shared professional culture among alliance militaries.

NATO also integrated nuclear strategy into its defense structure. The alliance adopted a system of shared nuclear planning, with American nuclear weapons stationed across European bases under dual-key arrangements—meaning both the United States and the host nation had to approve their use. The establishment of the Nuclear Planning Group in 1966 institutionalized this cooperation and gave non-nuclear allies a role in nuclear policy discussions.

France remained a founding ally, but in 1966, President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO’s integrated military command while keeping the country in the political alliance. France returned to the integrated command structure in 2009.

The event that radically changed NATO was the fall of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991.

Suddenly, the Justice League lost its Legion of Doom and the very reason why it was formed in the first place.

Not only that, but all of the former Warsaw Pact members, fresh off their liberation from the Soviet Union, now wanted nothing to do with Russia and wanted to join the organization too.

The North Atlantic Cooperation Council, established in 1991, and the Partnership for Peace program, established in 1994, created frameworks for cooperation with former Warsaw Pact states and former Soviet republics. These initiatives helped stabilize the post-communist transition and prepared some nations for eventual membership.

The Partnership for Peace program includes many non-NATO states in Europe and Central Asia, such as Switzerland and Austria, as well as several former Soviet republics.

Partnership for Peace was designed to build trust, promote democratic control of armed forces, and enable joint training and interoperability with NATO forces without requiring full membership.

NATO’s operational profile also changed with the end of the Cold War. In the Balkans, NATO deployed the Implementation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995 to enforce the Dayton Agreement, then the Stabilisation Force through 2004.

In 1999, NATO conducted Operation Allied Force, a 78-day air campaign to halt mass atrocities in Kosovo, and has maintained a peacekeeping presence there ever since.

After a 1995 “Study on NATO Enlargement,” NATO adopted an open-door policy under Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1999.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined in 1999.

2004 saw the organization’s largest expansion, with seven new members: Estonia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Croatia and Albania joined in 2009; Montenegro in 2017; North Macedonia in 2020; Finland in 2023; and Sweden in 2024.

As of the recording of this episode, there are 32 NATO member nations.

NATO deserves a fair amount of credit for the peace that Europe has experienced since the end of World War II.

However, while NATO is still strong and growing, it is facing new issues in the 21st Century.

One of the biggest concerns is the cost of bearing the defense burden. Each country has committed to spending at least 2% of its GDP on defense, but many have fallen far short of that target.

The United States has borne the brunt of the cost and manpower of NATO over the years, and now there is pressure for other member states to step up and meet their obligations.

Another major issue is NATO expansion.

The near-term focus of any future enlargement is obviously Ukraine, whose pathway has tightened since 2022. So long as the war is ongoing, there is little chance of Ukraine getting membership, but it has been a sticking point in relations between the US, Europe, and Russia.

Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina remain the other formal aspirants. NATO has repeatedly affirmed that Georgia will become a member, supports it through the NATO-Georgia Commission, and expects continued reforms in defense and rule of law.

Bosnia and Herzegovina participates in the Membership Action Plan, submits annual reform programs, and has faced internal political hurdles that has slowed progress.

Neither country has a set timeline, but both retain an open path if reforms take place and the allies reach consensus.

Could NATO expand outside of Europe? Other developed democracies around the world share similar values and work closely with NATO members individually.

Officially, the answer is no. Article 10 of the treaty prohibits potential members in South America, Africa, or Asia.

However, NATO retains relations with many countries outside of Europe and North America.

NATO maintains formal relationships with several regional groups of non-member partners. The Mediterranean Dialogue, begun in 1994, connects NATO with countries in North Africa and the Middle East, including Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Morocco.

The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, begun in 2004, extends cooperation to Gulf states such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Beyond the Euro-Atlantic region, NATO also has “global partners”. These are nations with advanced defense ties to the alliance, such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand, as well as others like Colombia. They participate in NATO missions, exercises, and policy consultations but are not bound by its mutual-defense obligations.

Together, these arrangements form what NATO calls its network of partners, a loose coalition of non-member countries that cooperate closely on security, training, peacekeeping, and technical development, effectively extending NATO’s reach and influence far beyond its formal membership.

NATO is unquestionably the most powerful and important military alliance in the world today, a position it has held for almost 80 years. There are challenges that the alliance will have to confront, but NATO will probably still be around, at least in some form, for decades to come.