North atlantic treaty organization (nato)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established after World War II as a collective self-defense organization for Western Europe and the US. The establishment of NATO was based on the idea that aggression can be deterred via a system of mutual defense. The treaty was a formal statement that member countries would not appease aggressive states, as they had with Italy and Germany prior to the war, by allowing them to attack any state in the collective. Instead, an attack on one member nation by an external force would be considered an attack on them all, and all member nations would assist the attacked party militarily. In 1955, six years after the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, the Warsaw Pact was created. Like NATO, the Warsaw Pact was a collective self-defense organ­ization, but it was designed for Eastern European states and the Soviet Union. With its creation, the two opposing sides of the Cold War were formally established.

With the break-up of the Soviet Union, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, and the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s and early 1990s, NATO’s focus has shifted and new challenges have emerged, including disagreements regarding its purpose and policies. For example, controversy has surrounded the question of which countries should be allowed to become members. In 1999 and 2004, NATO opened up membership to all former Warsaw Pact members, except Albania, though it too was invited to begin accession talks in 2008. Russia opposes the expansion of NATO, which it views as an attempt to surround and isolate it. Several NATO members have also expressed concern about allowing more states to join, arguing that further expansion will result in loss of effectiveness.

In addition to internal and external questions about membership, the organiza­tion is also struggling to define its role in a post-Cold War world. Originally designed to be a collective self-defense organization that responded to aggression against its members, NATO has since expanded its role, responding to conflicts that do not involve member states. In 1993, for example, it conducted air raids on Bosnian Serbs who had been attacking civilians. The organization also used its troops to enforce an embargo on Yugoslavia that same year. Although NATO received approval for this action from the UN Security Council, it did not have Security Council approval for its bombing campaign during the Kosovo War in 1999. NATO argued it was upholding international law by intervening in Kosovo for humanitarian purposes; however, some non-member nations saw it as a threatening attempt to circumvent the UN and ignore the rule of law.

Members of NATO are also at odds over the future direction of the organization. For example, the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq divided NATO. Britain supported the action, while France and Germany issued their strong dissent. Nevertheless, even though many maintain that the future of the organization is unknown and its purpose ill-defined, nations are still lining up to join it.

UNIT 4

Task 1. Read the text “Human Rights and Non-State Actors” and translate it.

Task 2. Say whether the following statements are true or false. If a statement is false, correct it using information from the text:

1. Human rights law was originally aimed at protecting the citizens from the state. 2. In many countries, criminal enterprises are arbitrarily detaining, torturing, and executing citizens. 3. The police always confront the armed criminal groups responsible for violating human rights. 4. Multinational corporations never abuse human rights, because they are powerful and have a lot of money. 5. Many NGOs provide people with the necessities instead of their governments.