There's More to NATO Than Article Five

Nikolas K. Gvosdev

Security, Europe

The rest of the treaty is just as important.

There has been a great deal of discussion in recent weeks over the attitudes of the two main presidential candidates towards the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In particular, the Hillary Clinton campaign has taken clear aim at Donald Trump's comments about the continued utility of the NATO alliance—and questioned whether a Trump administration would continue to honor America’s commitment, under Article 5 of the 1949 Washington Treaty creating the alliance, “that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.”

This bedrock guarantee has served as the basis for deterring any outside power from contemplated a military assault on any part of the Euro-Atlantic community, by making the assertion that U.S. national security is indissolubly linked to that of its NATO partners in other parts of North America and across the Atlantic on the European continent. It builds on the strategic assessment offered by the father of geopolitics, Halford Mackinder, in his 1943 article in Foreign Affairs, about the need for a “Midland Ocean” alliance to prevent Europe from falling under the control of a dominant Eurasian superpower and thus being in a position to threaten the United States itself. The protection offered by the NATO alliance has contributed a great deal to the modern world and the emergence of a liberal world order characterized, as Charles Krauthammer noted in these pages fifteen years ago, by “open seas, open trade and open societies lightly defended”—which, in turn, has contributed to the peace and prosperity of the United States. Meanwhile its principal rival, the Soviet Union, was driven into bankruptcy.

The Washington Treaty was ratified by the Senate in 1949 and subsequent amendments—to permit the enlargement of the alliance to new members—have also received the Constitutional imprimatur of the upper house. The Article 5 commitment is thus a contractual obligation that must be carried out with the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.