BRUSSELS, Belgium: The NATO military alliance in April marked 75 years since the signing of its founding treaty in Washington — where its members gather for an anniversary summit this week.
Here are some facts and figures about the organization forged in the Cold War and re-energised by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Just 12 countries were founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949 as the United States, Canada and much of western Europe clubbed together to face up to the threat of former World War II ally the Soviet Union.
As the alliance’s first Secretary General Lord Ismay quipped, NATO’s purpose was to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”
In 1952, often uncomfortable neighbors Turkiye and Greece joined, before West Germany became a member three years later.
After the end of the Cold War, NATO went through several waves of eastwards enlargement that saw its border with Russia grow with the inclusion of Poland and the former Soviet Baltic states.
After Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, Nordic neighbors Sweden and Finland reversed long-standing policies of non-alignment by joining NATO — taking the alliance to 32 members.
In total, NATO countries account for close to one billion people and around 50 percent of the world’s GDP.
Together they have 3.2 million men and women serving in their militaries.
Iceland is the only member without its own army.
NATO has only ever once triggered its Article Five collective-defense clause — which says an attack on one member is considered an attack on all — after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
That decision was a show of support for the alliance’s leading military power and far different from the threat in Europe originally foreseen by its founders.
The fall-out from 9/11 saw NATO get involved in Afghanistan where it remained until 2021, when a calamitous US-led withdrawal allowed the Taliban to take back power.
In response to Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, NATO allies agreed they would aim to spend two percent of their GDPs on defense.
That goal was raised after Moscow launched its all-out invasion of its neighbor in 2022 to having two percent as a minimum.
Former US president Donald Trump has railed against NATO countries not spending enough, warning he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to those not meeting their obligations.
In 2024, 23 NATO members are expected to reach or top two percent, up from three members in 2014.
June 2024 marked 25 years since NATO deployed troops in Kosovo in 1999, completing the withdrawal of Serbian forces after its 77-day air campaign.
That military intervention was just the second in NATO’s history, following its involvement in Bosnia in the mid-1990s.
A quarter of a century on, NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) still remains on the ground in the Balkans, making it the alliance’s longest-running mission.
After a rise in tensions last year led to rioting that wounded 93 NATO troops, allies agreed to send 1,000 additional soldiers to KFOR — taking its total to around 4,500.
Beyond the Balkans, NATO’s other major overseas missions have included a nearly two-decade deployment in Afghanistan and the 2011 bombing campaign in Libya.
No country has ever withdrawn from NATO, but France spent almost 43 years outside its military command structure after then-president Charles de Gaulle pulled out in 1966 complaining of US domination.
The decision — which saw NATO move its headquarters from Paris to Brussels — was only reversed by former president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009.
Nonetheless, France’s sometimes strained relationship with NATO continues. In 2019 President Emmanuel Macron said the alliance was suffering “brain death.”
Macron later said Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine had woken up NATO with the “worst of electroshocks.”
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From Cold War to the Ukraine war: NATO at 75
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From Cold War to the Ukraine war: NATO at 75
- After the end of the Cold War, NATO went through several waves of eastwards enlargement that saw its border with Russia grow with the inclusion of Poland and the former Soviet Baltic states
Ex-president’s war crimes trial sparks fierce debate in Kosovo
PRISTINA: In Kosovo, where former guerrilla leaders are still celebrated as heroes, the war crimes trial of ex-president Hashim Thaci and other senior commanders has reignited bitter debate over the legacy of the independence struggle.
The trial in The Hague, which hears closing statements this week, involves Thaci and three other senior figures in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the 1990s war against Serbia.
All are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, with prosecutors alleging they bear criminal responsibility for murders, torture and illegal detentions carried out by KLA members.
Thaci, who immediately resigned from the presidency after his indictment, and his co-accused all pleaded not guilty.
But in the Balkan nation, the trial has sparked protests, political backlash, and public anger.
For many in Kosovo, the trial represents the prosecution of the KLA itself, and with it the country’s independence movement, says international relations specialist Donika Emini.
“For decades, the KLA and its members have been glorified for their role in the war, while the court has challenged this dominant narrative,” said Emini, a researcher at the University of Graz Center for Southeast European Studies.
-’Unprecedented injustice’-
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was set up by the country’s parliament. It investigates and prosecutes suspected war crimes committed by ethnic Albanian guerrillas during the war.
Critics of the trial object to the fact that Serbia, which has never recognized Kosovo’s independence, has provided some of the evidence used at the trial. This, they argue, indicates bias in the proceedings.
The scale of atrocities committed by Serbian police and military during the war makes their involvement particularly sensitive. Thousands of ethnic Albanian victims were discovered in mass graves after the end of the war.
But the indictment against Thaci and the other defendants alleges that KLA members also committed crimes against hundreds of civilians and non-combatants at detention sites in Kosovo and northern Albania.
The victims, it says, included Serbs, Roma and Kosovo Albanians deemed political opponents.
Although the court is part of Kosovo’s judicial system, it is nevertheless based in The Hague and staffed solely by international judges in a bid to protect witnesses from possible retribution at home.
But its foreign location has fueled resentment back in Kosovo. It was hard to find anyone on the streets of the capital who supported the trial.
“This is an unprecedented injustice,” Agim Zuka, 63, told AFP in Pristina.
“There is no reason to try them. They have only fought the just war of the Albanian people of Kosovo,” 61-year-old Bahtije Rashica said.
- Protest march -
A march in support of the defendants has been organized to mark the country’s independence day — which also happens to come just before the final day of closing arguments in the trial.
Thaci’s own party organized the protest, which is expected to draw large crowds after weeks of nationwide campaigning against the trial.
Giant photos of Thaci and co-accused Kadri Veseli have also been placed in prominent squares in several towns and cities.
“This campaign has fueled resistance to the court and has been quite effective in articulating criticism for the lack of transparency and perceived inconsistencies in its work,” said the academic Emini.
But the case against the four has taken decades to build and contains extensive details of brutal crimes allegedly committed by members of the KLA between 1998 and 1999.
The prosecutors argue that, as senior figures in the armed militia, they ran a “joint criminal enterprise” that murdered, tortured, persecuted and illegally detained people at dozens of sites in Kosovo and Albania.
-’No common narrative’-
The court’s attempts at outreach have faced a backlash inside the country.
In May, a planned press briefing from its president had to be scrapped after smoke bombs were set off in front of her hotel, while school lectures from court officials drew outrage from politicians and some media outlets.
“Each decision of the Special Court not only affects individuals, but is closely linked to the history of the state and the identity of Kosovo,” said Emini.
Any outcome, particularly a guilty verdict, would change international perceptions of a “sensitive period” that had “no common narrative in the Balkans or in Kosovo,” she added.
“It will undoubtedly have symbolic consequences and will change the narrative and the way history will see Kosovo.”
The trial in The Hague, which hears closing statements this week, involves Thaci and three other senior figures in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the 1990s war against Serbia.
All are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, with prosecutors alleging they bear criminal responsibility for murders, torture and illegal detentions carried out by KLA members.
Thaci, who immediately resigned from the presidency after his indictment, and his co-accused all pleaded not guilty.
But in the Balkan nation, the trial has sparked protests, political backlash, and public anger.
For many in Kosovo, the trial represents the prosecution of the KLA itself, and with it the country’s independence movement, says international relations specialist Donika Emini.
“For decades, the KLA and its members have been glorified for their role in the war, while the court has challenged this dominant narrative,” said Emini, a researcher at the University of Graz Center for Southeast European Studies.
-’Unprecedented injustice’-
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was set up by the country’s parliament. It investigates and prosecutes suspected war crimes committed by ethnic Albanian guerrillas during the war.
Critics of the trial object to the fact that Serbia, which has never recognized Kosovo’s independence, has provided some of the evidence used at the trial. This, they argue, indicates bias in the proceedings.
The scale of atrocities committed by Serbian police and military during the war makes their involvement particularly sensitive. Thousands of ethnic Albanian victims were discovered in mass graves after the end of the war.
But the indictment against Thaci and the other defendants alleges that KLA members also committed crimes against hundreds of civilians and non-combatants at detention sites in Kosovo and northern Albania.
The victims, it says, included Serbs, Roma and Kosovo Albanians deemed political opponents.
Although the court is part of Kosovo’s judicial system, it is nevertheless based in The Hague and staffed solely by international judges in a bid to protect witnesses from possible retribution at home.
But its foreign location has fueled resentment back in Kosovo. It was hard to find anyone on the streets of the capital who supported the trial.
“This is an unprecedented injustice,” Agim Zuka, 63, told AFP in Pristina.
“There is no reason to try them. They have only fought the just war of the Albanian people of Kosovo,” 61-year-old Bahtije Rashica said.
- Protest march -
A march in support of the defendants has been organized to mark the country’s independence day — which also happens to come just before the final day of closing arguments in the trial.
Thaci’s own party organized the protest, which is expected to draw large crowds after weeks of nationwide campaigning against the trial.
Giant photos of Thaci and co-accused Kadri Veseli have also been placed in prominent squares in several towns and cities.
“This campaign has fueled resistance to the court and has been quite effective in articulating criticism for the lack of transparency and perceived inconsistencies in its work,” said the academic Emini.
But the case against the four has taken decades to build and contains extensive details of brutal crimes allegedly committed by members of the KLA between 1998 and 1999.
The prosecutors argue that, as senior figures in the armed militia, they ran a “joint criminal enterprise” that murdered, tortured, persecuted and illegally detained people at dozens of sites in Kosovo and Albania.
-’No common narrative’-
The court’s attempts at outreach have faced a backlash inside the country.
In May, a planned press briefing from its president had to be scrapped after smoke bombs were set off in front of her hotel, while school lectures from court officials drew outrage from politicians and some media outlets.
“Each decision of the Special Court not only affects individuals, but is closely linked to the history of the state and the identity of Kosovo,” said Emini.
Any outcome, particularly a guilty verdict, would change international perceptions of a “sensitive period” that had “no common narrative in the Balkans or in Kosovo,” she added.
“It will undoubtedly have symbolic consequences and will change the narrative and the way history will see Kosovo.”
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