NATO is by far the strongest military alliance in the world today. It was created in a completely different reality - the Cold War. Later, the organization had to adapt to new challenges. And with it its member since the end of the 90s, that is Poland.
The genesis of the Alliance and subsequent groups of new member states
Even before the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), also known as the North Atlantic Alliance, was established, Western European countries tried to form structures that could ensure their security. The first was created by Great Britain and France, which concluded a defense pact under the Treaty of Dunkirk in 1947 . A year later, they were joined by the so-called Benelux - Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This is how the Western Union was created.
At the Madrid summit, Poland received an invitation from NATO to join the Pact
The main goal of the five member states constituting it was, of course, cooperation in the field of security, although it was also carried out in economic and even cultural matters. The aforementioned countries might not be able to cope with aggression, for example by the Soviet Union, on their own. An additional strong player was needed.
This player turned out to be the United States, and what significantly influenced the security architecture of Western countries was the creation of the North Atlantic Alliance. And here it is worth remembering the date:April 4, 1949, because on that day the Washington Treaty was signed. There were 12 founding countries in total:Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Iceland, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, the United States, Great Britain and Italy. The founding countries decided, as stated in Article 5 of the treaty, that an attack on one of the member states will always mean an attack on the entire alliance, which in such a situation would be obliged to provide assistance to the attacked, including the use of armed forces.
The North Atlantic Treaty was concluded on April 4, 1949 in Washington, between Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Iceland, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, the United States, Great Britain and Italy.
Under the treaty, it was decided that only European countries could become new members of the Alliance. Indeed, in the history of NATO, it has expanded to include other countries several times. Greece and Turkey joined the Alliance in 1952, the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955, and Spain in 1982. In 1999 Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary became the next members, and in 2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia . The latter group of countries has already been adapting to NATO requirements under the Membership Action Plan created in 1999. - MAP).
NATO activities
NATO, operating in a two-block world (the Warsaw Pact was established in 1955) and everyday Cold War life, had first and foremost to prevent the USSR and its allies from attempting to attack any of its members, and even if it were to ensure that the result was the war was most beneficial. In the first context, a flexible response strategy was in force for several decades, i.e. de facto deterring the enemy based on the so-called the triad of deterrence . It comprised strategic nuclear forces, tactical and operational nuclear weapons, and conventional forces, but the most important element was the first element anyway. It was also necessary to keep an advantage in all the above-mentioned areas.
This arms race was won by NATO, but the changes at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s forced adaptation to a completely different reality. This was realized. In 1990, the Declaration on a transformed North Atlantic Alliance was published . The time of conventional arms reduction in Europe has begun. After the eastern bloc finally collapsed, a hand was extended to the countries that formed it earlier.
The Alliance was especially aware of the need to adapt to new challenges by the war in the Balkans . Under the 1995 Dayton Agreement, after the end of the war, NATO was to assume the military responsibility for ensuring security in this area. It also took NATO a few years to decide on further enlargement, this time to the east. On September 28, 1995, the Study on NATO Enlargement was adopted .
The Alliance was particularly aware of the need to adapt to new challenges by the war in the Balkans
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon towers on September 11, 2001, posed another challenge for NATO. The USA then referred to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, but a peculiar novelty here was the fact that there was no clear aggressor in the form of another state. An important aspect of this situation was the fact that the vast majority of the Alliance countries turned out to be unable to act quickly elsewhere in the world. As a response to these challenges, the Prague summit in October 2002 decided to reform and modernize the European armed forces.
The road to Poland's membership in NATO
In Poland, accession to NATO was treated as a raison d'être since 1990. In November 1992, a defense doctrine was adopted in our country, which reflected Poland's aspirations to membership in the Alliance. At that time, the prime minister was Jan Olszewski. In turn, in 1993, President Lech Wałęsa, in a letter addressed to the Secretary General of NATO (who is always a European), stated that the issue of membership was a priority for Poland.
However, Poland first had to meet a number of requirements and prove itself as a potential and reliable ally. To this end, at the initiative of NATO in 1994, the Partnership for Peace program was established. joint exercises with allied forces. S dearly, the Polish army took part in this type of exercise even before joining the Alliance, for example in June 1993, when the Baltops maneuvers took place . Poland was also the first country in this part of Europe to join the Partnership for Peace program. It happened on July 5, 1994, and already in 1996 Polish troops participated in a peace operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It also took NATO a few years to decide on further enlargement, this time to the East
Formally, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary were invited to join NATO on July 8, 1997. Poland became a member of the Alliance in 1999:on February 26, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski signed the accession treaty, and on March 12, 1999, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bronisław Geremek handed over to Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State, the act of joining NATO .
Poland continued to reform and modernize its armed forces. During this process, the Operations Command was established in 2003 to deal with matters of foreign operations. In 2014, it was transformed into the Operational Command of the Armed Forces. Polish special forces, valued by NATO allies, were also developed. Polish soldiers have participated in NATO missions so far, including in Afghanistan and Kosovo. Poland is currently one of the few Member States that allocates more than 2% of annual GDP to defense.