What Is NATO and Why It Matters

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|By Beth Manar |

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a political and military alliance that began with a treaty signed by the United States, Canada, and ten Western European countries on April 4, 1949. NATO was formed as a bulwark against what many capitalist countries in North America and Europe saw as an expansionist threat by the Soviet Union after communist regimes were established in East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria. One of the tenets of the treaty is Article 5, which allows for collective defense in the event of aggression against any member state, which many in Western Europe feared.

虽然美国和苏联与各国惨败纳粹德国在第二次世界大战(1939- 1945年)的联盟加盟,两个强大的国家之间的关系开始磨损战争结束后。资本主义美国和共产主义的苏联开始争夺意识形态的影响,并称为冷战一段时间开始。在冷战期间,两个相互竞争的世界大国没有从事反对对方主动战,但他们建造庞大的军事储备,包括核武器,并试图在欧洲,亚洲,南美和非洲等国家施加控制。

随着苏联的影响在冷战时期,特别是在东欧时期成长,其他国家进入北约,包括希腊,土耳其和德国在20世纪50年代。1955年,苏联和一些东欧共产主义国家形成的华沙条约组织的反北约,建立欧洲范围内形成了鲜明的分工。

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and became the Russian Federation (Russia), and the Cold War ended. Though NATO did not actively participate in any military conflicts during the Cold War, it has intervened militarily in several conflicts since the fall of the Soviet Union. Its first use of military force occurred during the Bosnian War when it enforced a United Nations’ (UN) no-fly zone and actively engaged in a bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb positions in 1994 and 1995. Since then, NATO forces have engaged in military interventions, one war, two military operations, and several peacekeeping missions, usually at the request of the UN. In 1999, NATO launched air strikes in Serbia to force the Serbian government to protect Albanian citizens in Kosovo, Yugoslavia. It deployed warships in Operation Ocean Shield to protect ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean from Somali pirates from 2008 to 2016. And in 2011, NATO enforced a no-fly zone over Libya.

尽管北约的初衷,7月20日18, the only time Article 5 has ever been invoked was after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. At that time, NATO issued the statement: ”The United States’ NATO allies stand ready to provide the assistance that may be required as a consequence of these acts of barbarism.” NATO then sent troops to help the United States fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. NATO has maintained a presence in Afghanistan in some capacity since then as part of the fight against terrorism. Not all NATO nations have always agreed with the United States, and NATO did not assist with the US invasion in Iraq in 2003, though it did participate in training Iraqi security forces from 2004 to 2011. In the eyes of many NATO members, Russia remains a threat to NATO nations due to its part in conflicts in Georgia beginning in 2008, its invasion of Ukraine to annex Crimea in 2014, its part in the ongoing war in Syria, and its continued attempts at interference in elections in several countries, including the United States in 2016.

As of 2018, NATO remains the most powerful military organization in the world, growing to 29 members by July 2018, and maintains permanent standing forces on active duty and air defense system and forces. Its premise of collective defense has been praised for keeping Europe generally at peace for almost 70 years, however it has come under consistent criticism from Russia as provoking tensions and even from representatives of its own member nations, including US President Donald Trump, who at times has called it “obsolete” and questioned its effectiveness. Trump has stated that the United States bears the brunt of the cost for NATO military defense and has called for other member countries to devote more spending toward the alliance. However, others argue that NATO’s value to the United States and its other members lies in its ability to promote peace by serving as a deterrent to those who recognize that an attack on one country will provoke defense by many and to encourage cooperation among its many partners to fight the more modern problems of terrorism, piracy, and cybercrime together.

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1思念“什么是北约和为什么重要”

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