Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Tomorrow, Monday, April 28, 2025, a celebration will be held at NATO headquarters in Brussels to mark the 70th anniversary of Germany's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 2024, NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary. According to a statement from NATO headquarters in Brussels, since its founding on April 4, 1949, the transatlantic alliance has grown from 12 founding members to 32 member states, all working together to preserve the security of our people. NATO, a community of allies bound by shared values ​​such as democracy, individual freedom, human rights, and the rule of law, celebrates its anniversary on April 4 every year at its headquarters in Brussels.
It is often said that NATO was founded in response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union. This is only partly true. In fact, the creation of the alliance was part of a broader effort to serve three purposes: deter Soviet expansion, prevent the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encourage European political integration.
The aftermath of World War II saw widespread devastation in Europe in ways that are now hard to imagine. Approximately 36.5 million Europeans died in the conflict, 19 million of them civilians. Refugee camps and rationing systems dominated daily life. In some areas, infant mortality rates reached one in four. Millions of orphans wandered the burned-out ruins of former major cities. In the German city of Hamburg alone, half a million people were homeless.
In addition, communists, aided by the Soviet Union, were threatening elected governments throughout Europe. In February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with covert Soviet support, overthrew that country's democratically elected government. Then, in response to West Germany's democratic consolidation, the Soviets blockaded Allied-held West Berlin in an attempt to consolidate their grip on the German capital. The heroism of the Berlin Airlift offered some solace to the future Allies, but deprivation remained a serious threat to freedom and stability. In the 1960s, this uneasy and stable status quo began to change. Cold War tensions renewed as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. President John F. Kennedy narrowly avoided conflict in Cuba, and as U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalated. Despite this unfavorable beginning, by the end of the decade, the organization, which had been primarily defense-based, had come to embody a new phenomenon: détente, an easing of tensions between the Western and Eastern blocs driven by a reluctant acceptance of the status quo.
During this decade, NATO and SHAPE unexpectedly relocated. In March 1966, France announced its intention to withdraw from NATO's integrated military command structure and requested the removal of all Allied headquarters from French territory. A new SHAPE headquarters was established in Castelo, Belgium, in March 1967, and NATO headquarters moved to Brussels in October of the same year. Notably, France remained in the Alliance and consistently affirmed its resolve to stand by its allies in the event of hostilities. France also proved to be one of the Alliance's most important troop contributors during subsequent peacekeeping operations. Flexibility has always been a key factor in NATO's success, and the French withdrawal from NATO's integrated military command structure demonstrated that NATO, unlike the Warsaw Pact, was capable of tolerating differences of opinion among its members.
The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the deployment of SS-20 Sabre ballistic missiles in Europe put détente on hold. To counter the Soviet deployment, the Allies took a "dual-track" decision to deploy nuclear-capable Pershing II missiles and ground-launched cruise missiles in Western Europe while continuing negotiations with the Soviets. Deployment was not scheduled to begin until 1983. In the meantime, the Allies hoped to reach an arms control agreement that would eliminate the need for these weapons. Failing to reach a hoped-for agreement with the Soviets, NATO members suffered internal disagreements upon its introduction in 1983. Following Mikhail Gorbachev's accession to the Soviet premiership in 1985, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987, which eliminated all existing intermediate-range ballistic missiles, nuclear cruise missiles, and land-based intermediate-range missiles. This is now considered a preliminary indication that the Cold War was coming to an end. The 1980s also saw the first new member join NATO since 1955. In 1982, newly democratic Spain joined the transatlantic alliance. By the mid-1980s, most international observers believed that Soviet communism had lost the ideological battle with the West. Dissidents worked to dismantle the ideological underpinnings of communist regimes, a process previously facilitated by the Soviet Union's apparent commitment to the human rights principles enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act. By the late 1980s, Poland's communist government found itself forced to negotiate with the previously repressed independent Solidarity trade union and its leader, Lech Walesa. Soon, other democratic activists in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself began demanding the same rights. At the time, the command economies of the Warsaw Pact countries were disintegrating. The Soviet Union, with an economy one-third the size, was spending three times as much on defense as the United States. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power intending to radically reform the communist system.

Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Tomorrow, Monday, April 28, 2025, a celebration will be held at NATO headquarters in Brussels to mark the 70th anniversary of Germany's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 2024, NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary. According to a statement from NATO headquarters in Brussels, since its founding on April 4, 1949, the transatlantic alliance has grown from 12 founding members to 32 member states, all working together to preserve the security of our people. NATO, a community of allies bound by shared values ​​such as democracy, individual freedom, human rights, and the rule of law, celebrates its anniversary on April 4 every year at its headquarters in Brussels.
It is often said that NATO was founded in response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union. This is only partly true. In fact, the creation of the alliance was part of a broader effort to serve three purposes: deter Soviet expansion, prevent the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encourage European political integration.
The aftermath of World War II saw widespread devastation in Europe in ways that are now hard to imagine. Approximately 36.5 million Europeans died in the conflict, 19 million of them civilians. Refugee camps and rationing systems dominated daily life. In some areas, infant mortality rates reached one in four. Millions of orphans wandered the burned-out ruins of former major cities. In the German city of Hamburg alone, half a million people were homeless.
In addition, communists, aided by the Soviet Union, were threatening elected governments throughout Europe. In February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with covert Soviet support, overthrew that country's democratically elected government. Then, in response to West Germany's democratic consolidation, the Soviets blockaded Allied-held West Berlin in an attempt to consolidate their grip on the German capital. The heroism of the Berlin Airlift offered some solace to the future Allies, but deprivation remained a serious threat to freedom and stability. In the 1960s, this uneasy and stable status quo began to change. Cold War tensions renewed as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. President John F. Kennedy narrowly avoided conflict in Cuba, and as U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalated. Despite this unfavorable beginning, by the end of the decade, the organization, which had been primarily defense-based, had come to embody a new phenomenon: détente, an easing of tensions between the Western and Eastern blocs driven by a reluctant acceptance of the status quo.
During this decade, NATO and SHAPE unexpectedly relocated. In March 1966, France announced its intention to withdraw from NATO's integrated military command structure and requested the removal of all Allied headquarters from French territory. A new SHAPE headquarters was established in Castelo, Belgium, in March 1967, and NATO headquarters moved to Brussels in October of the same year. Notably, France remained in the Alliance and consistently affirmed its resolve to stand by its allies in the event of hostilities. France also proved to be one of the Alliance's most important troop contributors during subsequent peacekeeping operations. Flexibility has always been a key factor in NATO's success, and the French withdrawal from NATO's integrated military command structure demonstrated that NATO, unlike the Warsaw Pact, was capable of tolerating differences of opinion among its members.
The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the deployment of SS-20 Sabre ballistic missiles in Europe put détente on hold. To counter the Soviet deployment, the Allies took a "dual-track" decision to deploy nuclear-capable Pershing II missiles and ground-launched cruise missiles in Western Europe while continuing negotiations with the Soviets. Deployment was not scheduled to begin until 1983. In the meantime, the Allies hoped to reach an arms control agreement that would eliminate the need for these weapons. Failing to reach a hoped-for agreement with the Soviets, NATO members suffered internal disagreements upon its introduction in 1983. Following Mikhail Gorbachev's accession to the Soviet premiership in 1985, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987, which eliminated all existing intermediate-range ballistic missiles, nuclear cruise missiles, and land-based intermediate-range missiles. This is now considered a preliminary indication that the Cold War was coming to an end. The 1980s also saw the first new member join NATO since 1955. In 1982, newly democratic Spain joined the transatlantic alliance. By the mid-1980s, most international observers believed that Soviet communism had lost the ideological battle with the West. Dissidents worked to dismantle the ideological underpinnings of communist regimes, a process previously facilitated by the Soviet Union's apparent commitment to the human rights principles enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act. By the late 1980s, Poland's communist government found itself forced to negotiate with the previously repressed independent Solidarity trade union and its leader, Lech Walesa. Soon, other democratic activists in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself began demanding the same rights. At the time, the command economies of the Warsaw Pact countries were disintegrating. The Soviet Union, with an economy one-third the size, was spending three times as much on defense as the United States. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power intending to radically reform the communist system.

When the East German regime began to collapse in 1989, the Soviet Union did not intervene, reversing the Brezhnev Doctrine. This time, the Soviets chose long-term reform over short-term control, which was increasingly beyond their capabilities, setting in motion a chain of events that led to the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact. The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, seemed to herald a new era of open markets, democracy, and peace, and the Allies were greeted with astonishing jubilation as cheering demonstrators overthrew communist governments in Eastern Europe. But there were also troubling doubts. Would a reunited Germany be neutral? What would become of the nuclear weapons in the former Soviet republics? Would nationalism once again become anathema to European politics? For NATO, the question was existential: Was the Atlantic Alliance still needed? Fortunately, by then, the United States had turned its back on its traditional policy of diplomatic isolationism. Aid provided through the US-funded Marshall Plan (also known as the European Recovery Program) and other means promoted a degree of economic stability. However, European countries still needed confidence in their security before they could engage in dialogue and trade with each other. Military cooperation, and the security it brought, needed to develop in parallel with economic and political progress. With this in mind, several democratic states in Western Europe came together to implement various projects to enhance military cooperation and collective defense, including the establishment of the Western Union in 1948, which later became the Western European Union in 1954. Ultimately, it was decided that only a genuine transatlantic security agreement could deter Soviet aggression, prevent a revival of European militarism, and pave the way for political integration. Consequently, after lengthy discussions, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949. In the famous Article 5 of the treaty, the new allies agreed that "an armed attack against one or more of them... shall be considered an attack against them all," and that, in the wake of such an attack, each ally would "take such measures as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force" in response. It is worth noting that Articles 2 and 3 of the treaty had important purposes not directly related to the threat of attack. Article 3 established cooperation in military preparedness among the allies, while Article 2 allowed them a margin of freedom to engage in non-military cooperation.
While the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty created the allies, it did not create a military structure capable of effectively coordinating their actions. This changed when growing concerns about Soviet intentions culminated in the Soviet Union's detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949 and the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. The impact on the alliance was enormous. NATO quickly acquired a unified command structure with a military headquarters based in the Parisian suburb of Roquencourt, near Versailles. This headquarters was the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, or SHAPE, and US General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe, or SACEUR. Shortly thereafter, the Allies established a permanent civilian secretariat in Paris and appointed the first Secretary General of NATO, Lord Ismay of the United Kingdom. Thanks to aid and a security umbrella, political stability was gradually restored to Western Europe, and the post-war economic miracle began. New allies joined the alliance: Greece and Turkey in 1952, and West Germany in 1955. European political integration took its first tentative steps. In response to West Germany's accession to NATO, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955. Europe settled into a state of stagnation, symbolized by the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. In 1991, as in 1949, NATO was the cornerstone of a broader European security architecture. In December 1991, the Allies established the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, renamed the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in 1997. This forum brought the Allies together with their neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia for joint consultations. Many of these newly liberated states—or Partners, as they were later called—saw a relationship with NATO as essential to their aspirations for stability, democracy, and European integration. Cooperation also extended southward. In 1994, the Alliance established the Mediterranean Dialogue with six non-member Mediterranean states: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. Algeria also joined in 2000. The dialogue seeks to contribute to security and stability in the Mediterranean region by improving mutual understanding. This nascent cooperation was soon put to the test. The collapse of communism gave way to a rise in nationalism and ethnic violence, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. Initially, the Allies were reluctant to intervene in what was perceived as a Yugoslav civil war. Later, the conflict came to be viewed as a war of aggression and ethnic cleansing, and the alliance decided to take action. Initially, NATO offered its full support for UN efforts to end war crimes, including direct military action in the form of a naval interdiction. The imposition of a no-fly zone soon led to airstrikes against heavy weapons in violation of UN resolutions. Finally, the alliance conducted a nine-day air campaign in September 1995, which played a key role in ending the conflict. In December of that year, NATO deployed a UN-mandated multinational force of 60,000 troops to assist in implementing the Dayton Peace Agreement and creating conditions for a sustainable peace. In 2004, NATO handed over this role to the European Union.