North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

The background to it's formation
For years Britain had supported Greece, but was now near bankruptcy due to the Second World War and was thus forced to end all meaningful involvement in Greece. This is why Britain formally requested the United States take over its role in supporting Greece during the February of 1947. Yugoslavia and Bulgaria had also got plans to spread communism to Greece, conquer Albania and set up a Yugoslav puppet state in Greek Macedonia.

The Berlin airlift, the rising numbers of Soviet troops in East Germany during the late 1940s and Czechoslovak coup of 1948 all increased the perception among many Europeans that the Soviets posed a real danger, helping to prompt the entry into NATO of Portugal (fascist), Iceland (weak), Italy (communist insurgency), Denmark (weak) and Norway (bordered the USSR). The Icelandic NATO riot of March 30, 1949 was the only major public protest over NATO at the time.

Several nations had already agreed to found it about 6 months earlier. These nations were- France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, the US, the UK and Canada.

NATO's rules

 * 1) Willingness to settle international, ethnic or external territorial disputes by peaceful means, commitment to the rule of law and human rights, and democratic control of armed forces.
 * 2) Ability to contribute to the organization's defence and missions.
 * 3) Devotion of sufficient resources to armed forces to be able to meet the commitments of membership.
 * 4) Security of sensitive information, and safeguards ensuring it.
 * 5) Compatibility of domestic legislation with NATO cooperation.
 * 6) Mutual defence, a 'one for all and all for one' doctrine.

1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and KFOR
NATO helped free Kosovo with the1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and joined KFOR As of 26 December 2013, KFOR consists of 4,000 troops. It did well in this role.

In Europe

 * 1) Greece and Turkey the military alliance joined NATO in 1952 since it guaranteed their protection from communist invasion and terrorism.
 * 2) Politicly unstable Spain joined in 1982 (it was figting the ETA serpatist movement).
 * 3) Germany reunited in 1990 and did no go neeatral as orginaly invisaged.
 * 4) Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined the organization, amid much debate within the organization and Russian opposition in 1999. They were scared of Russia's slide toward dictatorship.
 * 5) Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania joined NATO on 29 March 2004. The were disgusted by Russia's bullying tactics and cutting gas supply to Ukraine.
 * 6) Albania and Croatia joined on 1 April 2009. The were concerned about any long turn resurgent Serbian treat.
 * 7) Finland, Moldova, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia and Montenegro have either recently asked to join or were invited to join at a later date.
 * 8) The Republic of Kosovo wants to join NATO, but 4 NATO states blocked this. The facsist nations Greece (hates Albanians and Macidonians)  and Spain (hates Basques, who then founded ETA in resopce) as well as the former Eastern bloc nations of Romania, Slovakia, do not recognize Kosovo's independence and neither dose the UN United Nations.
 * 9) In 2011, NATO officially recognised four aspiring members: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia and Montenegro. Macedonia has been prevented from joining the alliance by Greece, who has racist views even about it's name 'Macedonia'. Sweden, Finland, Serbia, and Ukraine have had recent open political debate on the topic of membership.

Possible global moves
Some have proposed expanding NATO outside of Europe, which would require amending Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

The proposals cover Mexico, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, South Africa, India, Singapore, Israel, Australia, India and Japan.

During the June 2013, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos stated his hope that Colombia's cooperation with NATO could result in NATO membership, but his Foreign Minister, Juan Carlos Pinzon, quickly clarified that Colombia is not actively seeking NATO membership.

Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio had been supported at least in some places by NATO.

Italy's Years of Lead
Covert forces run by Operation Gladio intervened in Italy's Years of Lead with out Italy kowning and backed both National Vanguard and Ordine Nuovo.

The 2nd (or 1972-73) Anglo-Icelandic Cod War
On 16 September, Joseph Luns, Secretary-General of NATO held talks with with Icelandic ministers after they had asked to leave NATO since it had not blindly and automatic sided with the against the UK and W. Germany, but had gone neutral instead. They wanted UK and US forces out. In the end they stayed, but only after all UK and some US forces left.

The 3rd (or 1975-76) Anglo-Icelandic Cod War
This on and off fishing despite and the subsequent 'Cod wars' became more dangerous when Iceland threatened closure of the NATO base at Keflavík, thus undermining NATO's securing of the Atlantic Ocean from the Soviet Union, so the UK agreed to Iceland's 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusion zone without a specific agreement. 2 Icelandic fishing boats had also registered under the Soviet flag. The Soviets were a bit confused by the event, but did accepted the Icelandic ships' documents all tha same.

In theory going at the time was that Iceland was going to betray the plans for their part of the SOSUS sonar buoy line in the GIUK gap to the USSR.

All of this was more than enough for the UK and the rest of NATO to call Iceland a traitor and to invade it, which they did not.

the 1974 Cypriot coup d'état and 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Greece was not prevented from subverting the island's government in the 1974 Cypriot coup d'état nor was Turkey stopped from invading it. Both acts were with aggressive intentions towards the opposite ethnicity on Cyprus.

1982 Falklands War
The United Nations Security Council Resolution 502, which passed with ten votes in support, one against (Panama) and four abstentions (China, the Soviet Union, Poland and Spain). The Soviet Union did have several interests in the South Atlantic and Antarctic region, but chose not to intervene in the war. The United States was also concerned by the prospect of Argentina turning to the Soviet Union for support and initially tried to mediate an end to the conflict. President Regan ensured that U.S. provided the United Kingdom with military equipment ranging from submarine detectors and satellite images to hi-tech radios and the latest missiles. They even agreed to a request to borrow the Sea Harrier-capable amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) if the British lost an aircraft carrier. France was upset by Argentina's needless use of military force and provided dissimilar aircraft training so Harrier pilots could train against the French aircraft used by Argentina.T he French and British intelligence services co-operated to prevent Argentina from obtaining more Exocet missiles on the international market. West Germany informally gave some supplies to the UK. The satellite signal interception station at Fauske (Fauske II), Norway was vital in giving the British intelligence information regarding Argentinian fleet locations during the 1982 Falklands War.

Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece and Turkey offered no help to the UK despite being part of NATO.

1986 United States bombing of Libya
Libya's support fort the 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks, Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army; the Gulf of Sidra incident, and the 5 April 1986 bombing by Libyan agents of the "La Belle" nightclub in West Berlin angered NATO's leadership greatly. West Germany and the United States soon obtained diplomatic cable transcripts from Libyan agents in East Germany who were involved in the attack.

Canada allowed the appropriate war games in Newfoundland and the UK allowed the use of RAF Upper Heyford to launch the attack force from.

For the Libyan raid, the United States was denied overflight rights by France, Spain, and Italy. West Germany refused overfligts and the use of it's air bases. Both France and W. Germany resented the USA not asking permition untill the last moment and refusing to say what he misson was about beyond that the USAF was goning to bomb Libya. The Italian politician Bettino Craxi warned the Libyans about the planned attack and Italy proceeded to betray the NATO plans (as far as they knew them  at the time) to Libya! The Americans had to fly over Portugal and through the Straits of Gibraltar, thus adding 1,300 miles (2,100 km) each way with increased aerial refuelling to do so.

Soviet Union had unexpectedly chosen to explicitly announced that it would not provide additional help to Libya beyond resupplying basic armaments and munitions, but denounced the attack as a 'wild' and 'barbaric' act by the United States.

Libya soon retaliated by the firing two non-nuclear Scud missiles at a United States Coast Guard station that was situated on the Italian island of Lampedusa, but they overshot the target and landed harmlessly in the sea.

All of this was more than enough for the USA and the rest of NATO to call Italy a traitor and to invade it, which they did not. America's refusal to co-operate with France and W. Germany was also a breach of NATO's rules.

The parallel universe
The Chiba Confrence saw Australia, New Zealand, Kuwait, Sweden, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Jamaica and Japan also asked to join NATO after the 2nd August 1990 to 28th February 1991 war in Iraq, but they all declined the offer.

Nepal join in the April of 1993, Gabon joined in the May of 1993 and Fiji joined on the 12th of August, 1993.

Outside links

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_anti-NATO_riot_in_Iceland
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Czechoslovak_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Doctrine
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade
 * http://www.nato.int/
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_NATO
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_invasion_of_Cyprus
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Syrian%E2%80%93Turkish_border_clashes
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Events_leading_to_the_Falklands_War
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War