Website: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) embodies the transatlantic link that binds Europe and North America in a unique defence and security alliance. NATO’s essential and enduring purpose, set out in the Washington Treaty, is to safeguard the freedom and security of all its members by political and military means. To this end, NATO has provided for the collective defence of its members since its foundation in 1949. It has also acted as an essential forum for consultation on security issues of interest to its members, and as an essential pillar of peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.

With the end of the Cold War, the Alliance took on new fundamental tasks, including building security partnerships with democracies across Europe, through the Caucasus and into Central Asia. In response to changes in the overall security environment, the Alliance has taken on additional responsibilities. These include addressing both instability caused by regional and ethnic conflicts within Europe and threats emanating from beyond the Euro-Atlantic area.

Today, the Alliance is engaged in an increasingly broad range of activities, designed to promote cooperation with Russia, Ukraine and other countries outside NATO and to confront proactively the new security challenges of the 21st century, such as those posed by international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In order to remain effective in defending and promoting security in this new and rapidly changing security environment, the Alliance is engaged in an ongoing transformation affecting all aspects of its agenda, with new missions, new members, new capabilities, new partnerships, and new ways of doing business.

Website: NATO: 60th anniversary http://www.nato.int/60years/index.html

Wikipedia: NATO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO

Website: NATO's new strategic concept, 2009 http://www.nato.int/strategic-concept/index.html

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