NATO at 70: The History, Successes and Challenges of the Transatlantic Alliance in the Post-Cold War Era

Abstract:

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is the strongest and most successful political cum military alliance the world has ever known to date. Founded in 1949, the transatlantic alliance served as a bulwark for Western Europe countries from the expansion of the Soviet Union, its ideology – communism and, nuclear warheads during the Cold War. In the year 1991, the gigantic Soviet Union collapsed which marked the end of the Cold War. As the Soviet Union no longer posed a threat to NATO members, the Alliance took on new missions from conflict management in the Balkans and Maghreb, counterterrorism operations in South Asia and the Middle East, to anti-piracy missions off the Horn of Africa. At this juncture the question arising is this: is NATO a relic of the Cold War or an indispensable alliance in the 21st century? This paper recounts the eventful history of NATO from 1949 to 2019. It also answers the question, is NATO an obsolete or relevant alliance in the 21st century? and most importantly, it discusses at length the accomplishments and problems the Alliance faces in the post-Cold War era. These research objectives were successfully carried out using the historical approach with the qualitative method of secondary data collection. Concerning the findings in this research paper, it was discovered that NATO’s achievements are being overshadowed by the plethora of challenges bedeviling it, the biggest of which is defence spending shortfall.