The April 2024 edition of the IRMO Brief, authored by Igor Tabak deals with the 75th anniversary the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Just like the number of its members, the substantive orientation of NATO has changed, from focusing on the USSR during the Cold War, to focusing on wider and global security after the collapse of the Soviet Union. NATO started it’s enlargement process to Central and East European countries in 1999, and with Finland joining in 2023 and Sweden in March 2024, the Alliance has grown to current 32 member states. In 2001 the United States was the only NATO member in a situation to activate the security guarantee from Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, after a terrorist attack by the Al Qaeda. The author analyses how the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022 has put the cohesion of the Alliance to the test, and NATO’s efforts to reaffirm its role as the bedrock of Europe’s security.
Picture: NATO
