On April 4, 1949, the United States signed the North Atlantic Treaty with ten European nations and Canada.  The Treaty’s most important provision stated simply that an attack against one of us is an attack against all of us.  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created to address the increasing threat from the USSR.  However, in signing the Treaty, President Harry Truman could not have known how important this organization would be over 50 years later in the face of the new and even more dangerous threat of terrorism.

Since 1949, fourteen other nations, including three former Communist countries, have joined NATO.  The twenty-six member states send delegations to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, with one member becoming the Permanent Representative.  These Permanent Representatives form the North Atlantic Council, the governing body of NATO.  Each delegation also sends a senior military official to serve as the member state’s Military Representative.  These representatives form the Military Committee, which make recommendations based on the common defense of NATO areas.  What I feel is the most positive aspect of NATO’s governing principles is that every member state retains its sovereignty and is responsible for its own actions and decisions.  The Council only takes action after consensus among the members, not from simple majority votes. 

Several years after its formation, NATO created the Parliamentary Assembly in an attempt to give voice to the member state’s legislators and their common concerns.  While the Assembly is completely independent from the governing Council, it provides an important link to the democratically elected governments to which NATO decisions are so indelibly connected.  In March, I was honored with an appointment to the Assembly.  Since that time, I  have become even more convinced of the importance of the United State’s membership in NATO and the valuable role NATO plays in the War on Terror.

NATO has played an increasing important military role over the past twenty years.  NATO took its first military action in 1994 to address the ethnic conflict in Bosnia, helping end the war only a year later.  This was followed by a large scale military involvement in Kosovo to end the ethnic cleansing of Albanians.  The short eleven week bombing campaign brought down dictator Slobodan Milosevic with no NATO casualties.  Despite these successful campaigns, the actual security provision stating an attack on one country was an attack on all the countries was not invoked until September 12, 2001, following the terrorist attacks on the United States.  It became immediately apparent that NATO would provide ally support, primarily through troops.  As our nation wages a War on Terror and the War in Iraq, NATO allies can still help ease the current strain on our own troops.

NATO has already responded to the challenges presented by the post-9/11 world and has tried to adapt to the ever-increasing and ever-changing requirements of the organization.  The Council has passed several measures that call for expanded defense options and increased campaign sharing between the member states.  In August 2003, NATO took over command of the International Security Assistance Force, the United Nations peace-keeping force, in Afghanistan after unanimous approval by the Council.  This marked the first time that NATO had taken charge of a mission outside of the Atlantic area. 

In late May, I was present during the Black Dawn simulation and presentation before the Parliamentary Assembly.  The Center for Strategic and International Studies put forth a realistic scenario of nuclear-weapon attack on NATO headquarters.  While the intelligence and simulation was disturbing, the discussion afterward is a prime example of the importance of NATO and the interaction it provides.  Government officials from 55 countries were able to process the information together and devise real world solutions to prevent such an attack.

On that April day in 1944, President Truman signed the North Atlantic Treaty and stated that, "If there is anything certain today, if there is anything inevitable in the future, it is the will of the people of the world for freedom and for peace."  While the world has changed and the challenge of peace and freedom has increased, that statement remains true today and so does the mission and importance of NATO.