- NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
- It was formed in 1949 as a counterweight to the threat of militant European nationalism, amid concerns about the Cold War and the possibility of a Russian invasion.
- In the beginning there were 12 member states, from across Europe and North America. Now there are 29, including the most recent country to join, Montenegro in June 2017. Bosnia/Herzegovina, Georgia, and Macedonia are aspiring members. NATO has an "Open Door" policy which means any country in the Euro-Atlantic area is free to join NATO if it is prepared to meet the standards and obligations of membership, contributes to the security of the Alliance, and shares NATO's values of democracy, reform, and the rule of law.
- France withdrew in 1966 for 30 years amid doubts that the NATO defences against Soviet Russia would be effective enough.
- At the time, NATO's headquarters were located in Porte Dauphine in Paris, so when France withdrew they had to move. They moved to Brussels, into a hastily constructed building in 1967. Because the new HQ was a bit of a rush job it became necessary to build a new one - construction began in 2010, was completed in summer 2016, and the new HQ was dedicated on 25 May 2017. The 250,000 square metre (2,700,000 sq ft) complex was designed by Jo Palma and cost €750 million to build. The address is Boulevard Léopold III/Leopold III-laan, B-1110 Brussels.
- The first Secretary General of NATO was Lord Ismay, of the United Kingdom. At time of writing, the post is held by Jens Stoltenberg of Norway.
- NATO has an operating budget of 200 billion euros (£171 billion) a year. Members of NATO are supposed to contribute at least 2% of their respective GDPs, but not many countries actually do that - the UK and the US are two of the nations that do.
- Article 5 of the Treaty states that an attack on one member is an attack on all. This article has only been invoked once, on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the 9/11 attacks.
- NATO has led to standardisation of military terminology, procedures, and technology among its members, which has meant many European countries adopting US practices. One NATO standard we're all familiar with is the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc).
- One of NATO's priorities for the future is to guard against cyber attacks. NATO recognises cyberspace as an 'operational domain' – the same as land, sea or air. They help by sharing information about threats, providing training, and having a team of experts who can be sent to any member which is experiencing a cyber attack.
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