Talking Foreign Policy - What is the future of the NATO alliance?

NATO is a military alliance of 32 countries established at the end of World War II to provide for the collective defense of North America and Europe.

Professor Milena Sterio, can you help set the stage for our conversation by providing some background about NATO?

Sure, Michael.

NATO, as you mentioned, is a military alliance of 32 countries, and it is actually an international multilateral treaty that was negotiated back in 1949 in the wake of World War II.

And the main purpose of the NATO treaty at the time was to counter the potential Soviet expansion into Europe, but also to foster an alliance among European countries that had been ravaged by World War II and, to some extent, allow for at least an indirect US presence in Europe.

As you mentioned, by now it is an alliance of 32 countries, a large multina- multilateral treaty.

It-

All right.

We're gonna now turn to John Bellinger.

John was born in Paris, uh, when his father was working for NATO.

John, what were NATO's successes in those early years?

Well, as you say, NATO is personal to me, Michael, uh, as I was born in 1960 in Paris when my father, a young Army officer, was aide to the deputy supreme allied commander, uh, at NATO.

Uh, so I've always followed NATO closely.

Uh, so in those early years, uh, the primary mission, as we've heard, was to, uh, deter and counter the threat posed by, uh, the Soviet Union and its satellite states.

Uh, and during those early years, uh, uh, the North Atlantic, uh, Treaty Organization and then its military, uh, arm, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, uh, were, uh, headquartered in Paris and were focused largely on military and political, uh, integration.

They were integrating the military structures of the different countries, doing joint planning, uh, standardization of equipment, uh, agreements on joint stationing of forces.

Uh, uh, Germany was admitted, uh, for the first time in 1955.

Greece and Turkey admitted for the first time in 1952.

Uh, uh, then General Eisenhower was the first supreme allied commander, uh, in Europe, resident, uh, in Paris before he left in 1952 to run for president.

Uh, so this was a period, uh, of, uh, growing military, uh, and political integration.

Unfortunately, France decided in 1962, or '66, that it wanted to leave, not NATO, but the military planning structure, uh, because of disagreements with the French and the British.

And at that point, uh, NATO and SHAPE headquarters moved from Paris to Brussels.

Ah, I always wondered why that happened.