The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a few current issues surrounding the existence of NATO.

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Section 1-

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created in Washington, DC on April 4, 1949. Twelve countries signed in alliance to safeguard the freedom and security of the member countries. The member countries included the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal. Since then, seven countries have joined the transatlantic alliance. In 1952, Greece and Turkey joined the Republic of Germany in 1955, Spain in 1982, and most recently in 1999- Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. NATO headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium.

In signing this treaty, the United States according to Tim Lambert, "...broke two time honored traditions of American foreign policy: George Washington's the Serbian military and police forces resulted in over 1,500 Kosovar-Albanian Farewell Address dictum against entanglement in permanent alliances and James Monroe's doctrine of the mutual exclusiveness of European and western hemispheric political affair."

However, after the Pearl Harbor attacks, the American government needed to reexamine these policies. It was becoming more apparent that American security is directly linked with European affairs. NATO was also created with the threatening expansion of Soviet expansion and increasing tension with the Soviet Union. Very few Americans objected to the new alliance because of the realizations that US's interests could no longer be confined to the limits of the Western Hemisphere. Today, NATO exists as the core of American engagement in Europe and is the heart of European security.

There are smaller committees that exist in NATO. The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the principle forum for consultation and cooperation between member countries on all issues concerning security on a country. The North Atlantic Council/Defense Ministers (NAC/D) is the council that deals with primarily any defense issues. The Defense Planning Committee (DPC) is...