North Atlantic Treaty Organization

For a long time, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an international alliance, was considered to have a monopoly on deterrence of real and potential enemies for European and North American security. However, it has changed considerably as a military alliance in the past 10 to 15 years: today NATO is more an international crisis manager than a defensive alliance. At the same time, concerns about NATO’s commitment to defend some member states have emerged. In light of the new NATO Strategic Concept (which was adopted in November 2010), some allies have asked to broaden the understanding of an “armed attack.” The current reading of Article V (stating that “an armed attack against one or more of the allies in Europe or North America shall ...