NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, was created in 1949 by 12 countries to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.  

Commonly recognized as deterrance.

To this day NATO's stated purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.

The Secretary General concluded the NATO Summit held in Vilnius, Lithuania on Wednesday of last week.  And following the requisite amount of drama President Erdogan of Turkey relented and agreed to Sweden's application for membership to proceed.  Holdout nation Hungary also followed.

This is interesting on several levels.  First, since the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO has more than doubled in size to include 28 European countries, Canada and the U.S.  Finland came on board in April of this year with Sweden now to follow.  

Second, it is possible that Vladimir Putin calculated his unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine would lead to the fracturing of NATO.  Nope.  Previously non-aligned and neutral Finland and Sweden requested, hand-in-hand, membership in the alliance.  As a consequence, NATO has expanded and strengthened as an outcome of Putin's (not the Russian people's) aggression.  

And since the last presidential election we've learned that the former guy was going to unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from the NATO alliance in his second term of office.  Inasmuch as he may win the 2024 election there is bipartisan legislation that will likely come to a floor vote before then which would nullify executive action of this nature; instead, requiring an act of Congress or the Senate to exit the alliance.

War and elections have consequences.

Anyway, Article 5, which stands at the heart of NATO's founding says that an attack on any member of the alliance would be viewed as an attack on all.  If such an attack does occur, each member will take measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.  Article 5 has been invoked only once; following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  NATO came to America's aid.

It's good to have friends.

NATO is not a monolithic organization and its membership doesn't always agree.  Such is the nature of a diverse membership of democracies, nonaligned nations and tolerance for differing points of view.  

On balance I believe that NATO has been good for Europe and good for Canada and the U.S.  It has been good for our economies and good for our defense forces.  It has been good for the world.

For sure there is a minority that will take issue with my view; nevertheless, in a world with dangerously bad actors, in my opinion for more than 70 years NATO has been a force for good and it's better to be aligned with the good guys instead of the bad guys.