The mutual defence pact started with 12 nations and now has 32 members. But does bigger mean safer?

War in Ukraine drags on after more than two years of Russian aggression. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the invasion in part by blaming provocation by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, known as NATO; it had suggested that Ukraine could join the mutual defence pact. 

NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary at a summit meeting from 9 to 11 July 2024 in Washington, D.C., hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden. There, NATO leaders affirmed their “unwavering commitment to Ukraine.” They described it as a sovereign, democratic, independent state and underlined their determination to help Ukraine build a force capable of reversing the Russian aggression and deterring it in the future.  

But the likely outcome of the war is still far from clear, as is the strength of commitment to the Ukrainian cause by some of NATO’s leading members.  

At the end of World War Two, Western European leaders saw that their nations were too weak to defend themselves against the Soviet Union in the emerging Cold War. They wanted help from the United States. NATO was born in 1949 with 12 founding members. 

For its part, the United States feared that the Soviet Union could install communist regimes in all of Europe and close it off. Another fear was a return to more traditional power politics in Europe and the risk of more conflict.

Hastings Lionel Ismay, NATO’s first Secretary General, said NATO would “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in and the Germans down.”

Freedom and security through politics and arms

NATO is now a security alliance of 30 European countries, the United States and Canada. Its purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means. At the heart of NATO is Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which provides that an attack on one member is considered an attack against all members which will take actions to assist the ally under attack.

NATO’s membership has progressively expanded; a large number of Central and Eastern European countries joined NATO following the end of the Cold War in the 1990s. Finland and Sweden joined recently in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

The 32 current member states of NATO are Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.