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NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an intergovernmental military alliance between 31 member countries; 29 are European, and two are North American. The organization was founded after the Second World War as a collective security system for defending each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO served as a check on the perceived threat presented by the USSR. The military alliance stayed in place after the collapse of the USSR and has been involved in war conflicts in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed with 12 founding partners and has added new members 8 times, most recently when North Macedonia entered NATO in March 2020. After accepting their applications for participation in June 2022, because of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Finland and Sweden are expected to become the 31st and 32nd military alliance members.
Vladimir Putin has breathed new meaning into the existence of this NATO military alliance. North Atlantic Treaty Organization nowadays admits Bosnia, Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring partners.
NATO military spending in many European countries declined until Russia’s annexing of Crimea. The Defence Investment Pledge endorsed in 2014 calls for Allies to meet the 2% of GDP guideline for defense spending and the 20% of annual defense expenditure on significant new equipment by 2024.
Five NATO nations that were not meeting the 2% standard of military spending in 2014 were committed to meet it by 2021. And another dozen or so significantly increased their defense spending between 2014 and 2021. The map below shows the percentage of GDP of NATO Members for the military (2% obligation).
Percent of GDP Spent By NATO Partners on the Military
NATO after the Russian attack on Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine initiated Finland and Sweden to apply for NATO membership in May 2022. Finland officially joined NATO on 4 April 2023.
Initially, Russia cited the threat of NATO expansion as a result of Ukraine joining the alliance as one of the goals of the attack on Ukraine. The result turned out to be the opposite.
Finland becomes the 31st country to join NATO. This will more than double Russia’s border with the military alliance, taking the total to 1,584 miles and bringing the number of NATO states on the Baltic Sea up to seven.
The map below created by Reddit user giteam illustrates the changed length of Russia’s borders with NATO countries.
