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The Security Policy of NATO

Executive Summary of Regionalism in International Politics

This report has been developed on the studies of different regional organizations to understand and observe its utility for a nation in its growth and development, security and political stability. In doing so, the NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO) was selected for the same. The paper suggests that the organization works for the welfare of its member nation and make policies to perform smooth function. This report helps one in understanding the different functions of regional organizations. It gives an overview of the organizational impact on the functioning of its association. The report includes an analysis of the organization to help understanding whether a government should follow it or not.

Table of Contents

Executive summery.

Introduction.

A historical review of NATO..

Security policy of NATO..

Strength and weaknesses.

Limitations.

Conclusion.

Recommendations.

References.

Introduction to Regionalism in International Politics

Regional organizations have diverse varieties and achieve the powers by legation from member states (Whitehead 2020). It has attained a popular form of global cooperation throughout the world for regulating relations among neighbour states (Debre 2020). Invariance to regional organization in the Global North intends to create democratizing impacts by locking-in flexible changes. ROs function as opportunities that provide domestic actors with chances to empower themselves (Cooley and Heathershaw 2017). The membership of regional organizations can be helpful for autocratic occupants in enhancing their survival chances if they become successful in employing additional materials, informational and ideational resources to strengthen any one of the strategies from the toolbox of the autocrat’s that is necessary for domestic survival. The report focuses on the functioning of the regional organisations practises on security of its member nations. To study the same, the paper demonstrates an analysed study on the functioning of the (NATO). The objective of the report is to find out whether the government should follow these regional organizations or it should get separated from it. This report showcases NATO’s capabilities in providing threat protection to its neighbouring countries. The report will introduce the regional organization North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to perform its study.

A Historical Overview of NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which is a political and military organization is constituted in 1949 by US, Canada and other European countries for the protection of themselves against the USSR (Loshytskyi et al, 2020). The organization is based on mutual assistance and collective defence. The organization’s main principle is the collective defence. In the Charter of the United Nations, Article 51, the right of self-defence has been considered as a basic right. NATO provides consultations and help the member countries in taking decisions on security issues at all levels in different fields. The mission of the organization is to perform crisis-management operations which are carried out under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under United Nations Mandate. It works with 40 non-member countries on security and political issues. NATO also cooperates with a broad network of international organizations.

Security Policy

NATO’s security policy has five basic features. Each policy has been adopted aiming at ensuring a security of high level for information. The collective impact of the rules is to allow an extraordinary pressure on control of information.

Breadth: The very first element can be called as the principle of breadth despite of the fact that it has not been used in NATO’s documents. It implicit the rule that a member state of NATO has to accept in regards to information security which should supervise information of all kinds in all parts of the government. It forgoes limited approaches, probably limited to information received from NATO or the information which are kept at military or intelligence organisations. NATO helps its member countries to enhance their information security.

Depth: The depth of the coverage is NATO’s another significant policy. This rule also is not demonstrated in the same way in NATO documents. This policy has errors on the caution side at the time of deciding about the information which has to be covered by an SOI policy. The NATO classification policy demonstrates whose lowest categories apply to information with avoidable security.

Centralisation: NATO’s policy possesses another principle that is centralisation. It has intergovernmental and national factors, centralisation of accountability and strong understanding are regarded as the base of sound national security at the level of the country. It is expected from member states to set a national security organisation (NS0) that should be accountable for NATO information security and personal screening to collect and record intelligence in regards to sabotage subversion and espionage and to advise to government regarding security threats and adequate responses. It is also a responsibility of the NSO to lead the high-level system of understanding between inter-department which is needed to make sure that there is a tight integration of policies and procedures regarding to specific departments.

Controlled distribution: The security policy of NATO includes two rules which are supposed to control the information distribution strictly, one out of the two is the need to know principle which should be accessed by one individual to classified information only when the information is required to get their works done and access should not be allowed just because a person possesses a specific position whether it is senior or junior. This can be called a basic principle of security. One’s need to know requirement is assessed by the creator of the document or through one of the addresses mentioned by the creator.

The second rule which controls the information distribution can be said as the principle of originator control. This principle observes the right of member states and NATO, to establish strong limits on information distribution which is spread among member states, this principle was an agreement central having signed by NATO members in January 1950.

Personal Controls: The final attribute of the NATO security policy consists of rules in regards to the selection of people who are entitled to view classified information. These rules are strict in nature. It is not easily discerning the precise needs for personal screening. The criteria implemented at the time of cold war are not implemented anymore and there are some criteria used in the early years of NATO which were withheld in late 2002.

All the above mentioned security policies of NATO help governments in establishing a high secured administration in their respected countries by providing the nations a security assurance.

Strength of NATO

NATO not only has an important role in mitigating the pathologies realists related with anarchy but also continues to offer a deterrence function specially to the Russian Federation. The members of NATO makes a complete difference to the planned environment faced by the former members of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union.

NATO has been responsible for implementing the largest collective defence since the cold war. When any ally is attacked, it is considered as an attack on all the allys.

NATO helps in managing crisis situation across the world. NATO helped stopping the conflicts that were happening in the region into Bosnia and Kosovo. NATO does not solve only combat related issues but helps in solving other issue too.

NATO helps to combat terrorism around the world. More than 13000 NATO soldiers have worked to provide training to the local forces in Afghanistan in order to stop terrorism there. (Holas 2018).

NATO provides a clear command structure. In the condition where different countries are working together it is very important to have a clear chain command to follow. Military persons and civilians from the member countries work within the proper guideline to ensure a sufficient level of protection each day.

Weakness of NATO

NATO requires its funding from five nations only. The USA is the main contributor to $2.8 billion annual budget of NATO. While the funding round of 2014, it contributed 3.61% of its total GDP towards NATO. Besides the USA, the United Kingdom, Greece, Estonia and Poland are addressing their financial guidelines.

After the Warsaw Pact collapsed, NATO’s role has change. At the time of cold war, NATO did not perform any military operation. The first military operation by NATO was prompted by the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.

NATO’s way have been paved by the USA most of its life. One of the issues with NATO funding structure is USA’s providing of money and equipments to the alliances.

Despite having a higher degree of adjustment and a large range of competencies, NATO as a regional organisation has to face certain limits in its functional activities (Istomin and Bolgova 2018). Understanding these restrictions is as important for evaluating the prospects of the alliance transformations as revealing its potentials.

Since the establishment of NATO American leadership has been its key structural characteristics. Quiet comparative debate over probable addition of Russia in the alliance never progressed more than lip service and was generally prohibited by the assertions that it is very large and different to be established.

Conclusion on Regionalism in International Politics

Regional organisations can be beneficial for a government to attain desired progress and development. NATO is such an organisation to which 30 countries are associated. The initial objectives of the organisation were to create peace and upliftment among its member countries which gradually changed over the period. It is very strict in their policy which enables it to act upon the needs of its member countries. Sometimes, NATO shows rule violations as well, however, it has been beneficial for the countries it is associated with. Being a member of NATO can be beneficial for a country as apart from security, it also ensures a long-lasting peace among its members which is based on common values of one’s freedom, democracy rule of law and human rights. NATO not only provides help to secure the borders of its member countries but also performs necessary works where possible for protecting values and managing crisis.

Recommendations on Regionalism in International Politics

Since the end of the cold war, NATO must look for its place within a less centralized and more complicated global order. NATO’s new role will be influenced by the emergence of particular threats from a different spectrum of probability.

NATO should be ready to respond to the challenges that don’t affect it security directly but matters to its citizens which can contribute to the Alliance’s international standing. The challenges could be the humanitarian consequences of a failed state.

Allies and its partners should be ready for potential disruptive developments in such dynamic areas like information and communication technology, biological and cognitive science, robotics and nontechnology. The most dangerous periods of the past supposed to be those when the aggression means have gained the upper hand in the art of waging war.

NATO should be ready to accept the conventional military aggression against the Alliance and its members which has less possibility but cannot be ignored completely.

References for Regionalism in International Politics

Cooley, A., and Heathershaw, J. 2017. Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia. New Heaven: Yale University Press.

Debre, M. J. 2020. The dark side of the regionalism: how regional organizations help authoritarian regimes to boost survival. Democratization.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2020.1823970

Holas, L. 2018. Prospectus for Russia-NATO relations: the SWOT analysis. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 51(2), pp. 151-160.

Istomin, I., and Bolgova, I. 2018. The Future of NATO: Trade-Offs and Possible Scenarios.

Loshytskyi, M., Kostenko, O., Koropatnik, I., Tereshchuk, G., and Karelin, V. 2020. Organizational competence of NATO information security policy. Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues, 9(3), pp. 735-746.

Roberts, A. S. 2012. Entangling alliances: NATO’s security policy and the entrenchment of state secrecy. Cornell International Law Journal, pp. 1-50.

Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postcomstud.2018.04.003

 Whitehead, L. 2020. Regional organizations and democratic conditionality: family resemblances and shaming. International Political Science Review.

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