For the Survival of Civilization

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the NATO alliance. Though central to international security, to the web of U.S.-led alliances that maintain some semblance of international order, to the security and interests of the United States, NATO is underappreciated by most Americans.

Beginnings
The idea of a transatlantic defense partnership predates NATO’s creation by at least 30 years. To keep the peace after World War I, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau in 1919 called for “a postwar alliance of the victors,” as historian Patrick Cohrs writes. But the American people were not yet ready for such a commitment.

Soon after World War II, with Stalin menacing Western Europe, the idea resurfaced. But with Americans focused on bringing the troops home and reaping the fruits of a postwar peace dividend, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg created their own mutual defense pact under the Brussels Treaty. Prime Minister Paul-Henry Spaak of Belgium rightly cautioned that any alliance without the U.S. would be “without practical value.”

Only after a series of provocations and acts of outright aggression by Moscow—breaking agreements made at Yalta to hold free elections in postwar Europe, supporting communist forces in the Greek Civil War, pressuring Turkey for basing rights, toppling Czechoslovakia’s democratic government, blockading West Berlin—did the United States agree to join a transatlantic defense alliance. Britain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal joined the U.S. in drafting and adopting the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949.

The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in July of 1949, 82-13. Lord Hastings Ismay, NATO’s first secretary general, famously said NATO’s mission would be “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down.”

Taking the reins as NATO’s first military commander, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower called NATO “the last remaining chance for the survival of Western civilization.”

From the beginning, NATO has been a defensive alliance designed not to wage war, but to deter war. President Harry Truman declared, “For the first time in history, there exists…an integrated international force whose object is to maintain peace through strength.” Ismay explained, “The paramount, the permanent, the all-absorbing business of NATO is to avoid war.”

For 75 years, NATO has succeeded by convincing its chief adversary that the costs of attacking any NATO member would far outweigh the benefits of such a gamble.

Article V of the treaty is what does the convincing. At the heart of the treaty, Article V declares, “an armed attack against one or more…shall be considered an attack against them all.” Binding the U.S. to Europe’s security, this all-for-one clause gives the treaty teeth—and Moscow pause.

Open Door
Contrary to the claims of Putin and his apologists, NATO’s membership roster has never been static or cemented. The North Atlantic Treaty makes clear that members may “by unanimous agreement invite any other European state in a position to further the principles of this treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area to accede to this treaty.”

And so, NATO has been growing since it was born—not by conquest but by consent, not by the force of arms of its members but by the desire for security of its aspirants: Turkey and Greece joined the alliance in 1952, West Germany in 1955, Spain in 1982.

After the Cold War, President George H.W. Bush declared, “Let Europe be whole and free. To the founders of the alliance, this aspiration was a distant dream…now it’s the new mission of NATO.”

The alliance has carried out this mission of knitting Europe together with gusto. As East and West Germany reunified, Germany’s eastern half came under the NATO umbrella in 1990. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004; Albania and Croatia in 2009; Montenegro in 2017; North Macedonia in 2020; Finland in 2023; Sweden in 2024.

Putin calls NATO’s growth “a serious provocation,” claiming it violates post-Cold War agreements. But no less an authority on the end of the Cold War than Mikhail Gorbachev countered Putin’s alternate version of history by explaining that “the topic of NATO expansion was not discussed at all” as the Cold War thawed.

In other words, NATO didn’t double-cross its way to the Russian border. The reality is that NATO’s door has always been open. Sovereign nations choose to walk through that door to gain the security that comes with NATO membership. They have done so since 1949 because they distrust Moscow and recognize that NATO is the only source of security in Europe. That distrust has been validated repeatedly—from the Baltics and Poland during World War II to Hungary and Czechoslovakia during the Cold War to Georgia and Ukraine today.

Today
It could be said that, rather than scaring NATO to death, Putin’s attempt to crush Ukraine has scared NATO back to life. For years, the alliance had been drifting, many of its members slumbering, the common defense wasting away. But with Putin trying to rebuild the Russian Empire, there’s broader support—and clearer need—for NATO than at any time since the coldest days of the Cold War. The Russian assault in Ukraine has reawakened NATO to its core mission.

Twenty-three NATO members now invest at least 2 percent of GDP on defense—the NATO standard. Poland is spending more than 4 percent of GDP on defense and will increase that to 5 percent next year. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all invest more than 3 percent of their GDP in defense. Finland has nearly doubled defense spending since 2019. Sweden has doubled defense spending since 2020. Germany has almost doubled defense spending since 2022. France is increasing defense spending by 40 percent between 2024 and 2030.

Britain is deploying 20,000 troops to defend NATO’s northern flank. Finland is standing up a new NATO land command. Dozens of NATO allies have contributed combat units to forward-deployed battlegroups charged with defending NATO’s most at-risk members in the Baltics, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

The U.S. and Germany just announced the deployment on German territory of hypersonic weapons (capable of traveling at least five times the speed of sound), Tomahawk land-attack missiles (with a 1,000-mile range) and SM-6 missile systems (providing air-and-missile defense).

NATO is investing $1.2 billion to help members replenish their 155mm artillery stocks. Germany has quadrupled tank-shell production to 240,000 rounds per year. Sweden is quadrupling its production of anti-tank weapons. Europe’s largest munitions producer will churn out 600,000 shells this year, up from 150,000 in 2022.

These allied efforts contribute to America’s security and serve as force multipliers for American power.

Mistakes and Miracles
In addition to shoring up the common defense, NATO members pour military and economic resources into Ukraine. Their objective is not only to help Kiev wage and win a just war of self-defense, but also to strengthen their security. Although Ukraine is not a NATO member, the allies recognize that Putin’s war threatens what the North Atlantic Treaty calls the “stability and…security of the North Atlantic area.”

In July, during their summit in Washington, all 32 members of the alliance labeled Russia a “direct threat to allies’ security,” declared that “we will never recognize Russia’s illegal annexations of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea,” and repeated their promise that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO.”

NATO first made that promise in April of 2008. Recognizing that NATO is the only guarantor of security in Europe, President George W. Bush led a bloc within NATO pushing to bring Ukraine (and Georgia) into the alliance. France and Germany opposed that effort. And since NATO operates by consensus, Ukraine (and Georgia) were left on the outside looking in—with a dangled promise of NATO membership but no pathway to that goal.

Some view that decision as a bullet dodged for NATO. But it was an opportunity missed—and a green light for Putin, who proceeded to seize part of Georgia in late 2008 and part of Ukraine in early 2014 before trying to absorb all of Ukraine in 2022.

All 32 NATO members are working to correct that mistake and ensure Ukraine’s long-term security. Getting 32 nations as diverse as tiny Luxembourg and sprawling America, Russo-philic Hungary and Russo-phobic Poland, liberal-democratic Sweden and quasi-authoritarian Turkey, sheltered Iceland and the frontline Baltics to agree on anything is no small feat. But getting them to agree on something as contentious and consequential as NATO membership for a former Soviet republic under assault from Russia is close to miraculous.

In the next issue, we will look at NATO’s role and relevance through the timeless vision of Ronald Reagan.