NATO: What it is and How it Differs from the UN

Both NATO and the UN are international organizations with several member nations and one similar goal—world peace and cooperation. However, besides these two points, the two bodies are very different from each other.

The United Nations (UN) was formed in 1945 soon after the Second World War with the aim of preventing such a universal conflict from breaking out in the future. It depends on the diplomatic participation of its members and has several social agencies under it that help it to further its additional plans for greater global equality and sustainable growth.  

NATO—short for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—on the other hand, is primarily a military alliance. Its focus is the collective and strategic defense of its member countries. It also works toward the promotion of democratic values globally and, wherever possible, attempts to preempt the breaking out of violence.

International Organizations in the Twentieth Century

The conflicts of the twentieth century took on a more global nature than those that came before. For instance, the Second World War was fought between two main sides: the Allied powers (headed by USA, Great Britain, and the USSR) and the Axis powers (led by Germany, Japan, and Italy). However, it wasn’t only the soldiers of these countries that clashed on the battlefields. In fact, even the battlefields weren’t limited to these nations or even just to Europe. War theaters during World War II were spread across Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Hawaii. This extensively international nature of this war, and the Great War before it, is the reason they came to be called “World Wars.”

These two hostilities were hardly the only ones to take place during the 20th century. The second half of the 1900s also saw the Cold War, which affected nearly every country in some way or the other.

Such conflicts involving so many different countries at once called for a similarly international approach to tackle them. This, in turn, led to the creation of several international organizations with such aims, the prime one being the UN.

A Brief History of NATO

Even as the Second World War was coming to a close, factures had begun to emerge between the Allied powers along ideological lines, with the US and Great Britain on one side and the Soviet Union on the other. Almost immediately after Japan’s surrender in 1945, which marked the end of all of WWII’s violence, the world seemed to split into two blocs: the Western bloc with the US at the helm and the Eastern bloc headed by the USSR.

The war had left much of Europe devastated structurally, politically, and economically, needing help to be rebuilt and restructured. The Western powers and the USSR differed on the manner in which this would be done: the former pushed for democratic states with liberal economies, while the latter advocated for communism as the way ahead. This disagreement resulted in Europe and Germany being split into two, each half taken over by one side. However, there was continued uneasiness between the two sides as each feared expansionism by the other.

In 1948, a fear of Soviet aggression led Britain, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands to form an alliance. The next year, on 4 April 1949, the US and Canada joined this alliance with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty. It laid down the principle of collective security in Articles 3 and 5. Article 3 pressed for cooperation among the allies on matters of military preparedness. Article 5 states that “an armed attack on one or more” of the signatories would be responded to with a retaliation that involved all of the allies. At the same time, the treaty made space for non-military cooperation as well in Article 2.

There were two main routes devised for the reconstruction of Europe after WWII: liberalism and communism. The Allies split over this difference.

A coherent military structure under NATO was not devised until the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. Following this, SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) was established in Paris, France. 

Over time, NATO built up a security umbrella across Western Europe, allowing the economies of these countries to establish themselves. More states were allowed to join NATO, including West Germany in 1955. The USSR countered this with the creation of the Warsaw Pact in conjunction with its client states that same year.

NATO policy for a significant time after the Soviet Union had announced its own nuclear capabilities was “Massive Retaliation.”  It stated that any aggression by the Soviet Union, of any magnitude, would be countered with a wide scale nuclear response. The threat of such an outsized retaliation produced a two-fold effect: both sides refrained from any action that might trigger it, and the pressure of building individual military power was taken off the backs of NATO’s European member states—they focused on their political structures and their economies. Meanwhile, NATO utilized its space for nonmilitary cooperation to establish the NATO Science Programme.

The 1960s opened with the Cuban Missile Crisis and a shift in NATO’s strategy from Massive Retaliation to détente and “Flexible Response.” From maintaining an uneasy status quo, NATO now sought to bring changes to it through subtle political means. For instance, the process that led to the Helsinki Act was one of NATO’s initiatives.

The first time NATO weaponry was deployed in actual combat with the USSR was after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. However, this was also the last time NATO was involved in an active combat situation during the Cold War. A decade later, on 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the disintegration of the USSR was well underway.

The breakup of the Soviet Union and its threat of communism did not, however, also bring about the dissolution of NATO. Instead, NATO continued to function, with its primary goals now becoming the deterrence of military nationalism in Europe and the promotion of democracy everywhere else. The 1990s saw NATO involvement against ethnic cleansings in Yugoslavia and Bosnia. In the twenty-first century, the 9/11 terrorist attacks led to NATO action as well—Article 5 was invoked for the first time, and allied troops made an advance into Afghanistan.

Post-Cold War NATO turned its focus from communism to other threats to democracy.

Since then, NATO continues to intervene in various conflicts, working toward achieving a result without military involvement.

NATO vs. UN

Given their similar goals, NATO and the UN are frequently compared with each other.

Membership

One of the most obvious differences between NATO and the UN is in the composition of their memberships:

• NATO has 30 member countries with most of them being European. In fact, the only non-European countries in the alliance are the US, Canada, and Turkey. NATO began with 12 founding members, with several more countries signing the treaty at various different points of time. Additionally, a Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme was established in 1994, which allowed non-member states to be granted status as “partners.” This meant that information-sharing could be expanded to include the partner countries when needed, and they, in turn, had access to NATO guidance to develop their military capabilities.

• The UN is a more global organization than NATO. It started with 51 participant countries in 1945, to now have a membership that runs up to 193 member countries. Membership to the UN continues to remain open to any sovereign country, subject to a collective decision made by the General Assembly and the Security Council.

Goals and Objectives

Both NATO and the UN count among their objectives the establishment of international peace and stability. However, the structures they utilize and the nature in which they function differ greatly.

• NATO’s primary goal is collective defense based on a military alliance and, therefore, it depends on a military structure. The armed forces of NATO countries are bound to maintain efficient communications and cooperation among themselves. SACEUR, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, as the name suggests is the top-ranking military officer in NATO. The position is held by commanders and generals of the US Army. NATO also has significant civilian involvement, as it also uses diplomacy to try to head off violence.

• The UN, on the other hand, depends on a primarily diplomatic structure. Its ambit includes more social goals such as the promotion of human rights, economic development, and provision of humanitarian aid. More recently, climate change and related environmental issues have also begun to occupy the UN’s focus. In order to achieve these goals, the UN depends on five main organs that consist of the General Assembly, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and the Secretariat. (Some of these bodies are similar to the legislative and judiciary organs of individual states). Specialized agencies under the UN, such as UNESCO and UNICEF, provide a means for the organization to employ soft power strategies beyond official diplomacy that open avenues for citizen interactions.

Military Capabilities

As has been established, NATO is a military alliance, while the UN is not. Therefore, another key area of difference between the two is in their military capabilities.

• NATO has a well defined command structure that integrates military and civilian personnel from its member countries. At the highest level of this structure are two Strategic Commands—the Allied Command Operation in Belgium and the Allied Command Transformation in the US. Below them are the Joint Force Commands that are responsible for the deployment of operations. NATO has permanent standing forces that include air and naval capabilities. These are contributed to by the member nations of the Alliance. During active operations, equipment and further troops are also derived from the armies of these countries. Partner states too have the option to contribute to and call upon NATO’s resources when the need arises; their level of involvement in the alliance is left up to them.

• The UN, on the other hand, has relatively modest military capabilities. Its only military arm is its peacekeeping forces, also known as the Blue Helmets. Currently, this body consists of about 70,000 military personnel volunteered by the national armies of member nations. UN peacekeeping forces act only to protect civilians, monitor borders and peace processes, provide security, and assist with training. They do not function in an offensive capacity. There is no standing reserve, and their deployment takes a while once the need for it has been identified by the Security Council.

Cooperation between NATO and the UN

Given the common goals of international peace, NATO and the UN have established a functional working relationship. Cooperation between the two began in the 1990s, when the shift in NATO’s priorities aligned them closer to those of the UN. 

A framework was established in 2008 that formalized several aspects of the manner in which the two organizations would cooperate. Reports are regularly exchanged and channels for direct dialog between the Secretaries General of both institutions have been opened up. NATO has also established the posts of Civilian and Military Liaison Officers to the United Nations to further communications.

On the ground, this cooperation extends in several directions. NATO frequently provides support and training to the UN peacekeeping forces on their increasingly challenging missions. The alliance is also working with the UN to devise a faster procedure for the deployment of its troops. 

NATO has also carried out operations in conflict-ridden areas such as the Balkans, Libya, and Afghanistan at the behest of the Security Council. It also provides strategic support to the various agencies allied with the UN to aid in their work. For instance, it collaborated with WFP (World Food Programme) to transport supplies to a field hospital in Ghana during the Covid-19 pandemic and the crisis it induced. 

Other significant areas of cooperation between NATO and the UN include counter-terrorism, crisis management, gender violence, protection of children caught in armed conflict, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and disaster relief. 

Periodically, NATO and the UN recommit themselves to cooperation and expand the scope for it through Joint Declarations. The former’s expertise and resources provide it with a unique opportunity to support the latter’s resolutions.

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