NATO Response



Role of NATO in the 21st Century 
Since the end of the Cold War, the role of NATO has shifted from containing the Soviet Union’s influence in Europe to becoming an overall security organization. Although containing the Soviet Union was at the forefront of NATO’s agenda, stopping the spread of communism authoritarianism and fascism was also a major goal. Now that the threat of the Soviet Union is gone, NATO membership has grown, with many countries having initially been part of the Warsaw Pact joining. NATO has also become the go-to organization due to its past successes in bringing about peace. The introduction of the European Union after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 also contributed to the idea of collective defense and collective security.
In recent years, NATO members have led the way in multiple peacekeeping and counterterrorism operations, notably in the Balkans region and Afghanistan. In regard to counterterrorism, Article V was invoked for the first time after 9/11. Article V states that an attack on one is an attack on all. Since then, Article V has been deployed in other instances such as in Syria. In this sense, the role of NATO could be seen as an intricate western alliance with the goal of democratic peace. As stated above, containing authoritarianism was one of the original goals of NATO. Today, this still seems to be one of its significant roles because peacekeeping and counterterrorism operations usually deal with dictatorships and weak states.
NATO’s attention has also shifted towards containing Russia and China militarily and economically. Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine and China’s growing GDP is of increasing concern to NATO members. These issues are still unfolding today, so what NATO will do is still unclear. However, the goals of collective security and collective defense will most likely push the members of NATO to act on the aggressions of Russia and China at some point.

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