The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union as those nations rebuilt after World War II. It was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered outside the Western Hemisphere.
The crux of the commitment of its 32 member countries is a mutual defense agreement in which an attack on one is considered an attack on all. NATO has been involved in many military operations, including in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Libya, but those were missions agreed upon separately by member states.
The only time Article 5 has been invoked was in 2001, to support the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
Article 5 is the collective defense clause that outlines the responsibilities of members. If one member is attacked the others must respond as they "deem necessary." Response could mean sending troops, providing logistical support, intelligence or other assistance.
But now, President Donald Trump has suggested the U.S. may consider leaving because NATO member countries have ignored his call to help convince Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping waterway whose closure has contributed to spikes in gasoline prices.
After his closed-door meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte last week, Trump issued an all-caps comment on social media suggesting he remained aggrieved:
"NATO WASN'T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON'T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN," the president said in his post.
On Friday, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared the Strait of Hormuz open while a 10-day ceasefire was announced between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.
Trump had told reporters that Iran agreed to all of his demands, including to allow the U.S. to collect uranium from the country. Iran, however, denied such claims and soon reversed its decision to reopen the strait, citing the ongoing U.S. naval blockade that Trump kept in place.
Meanwhile, gas prices spiked again Sunday after trending downward earlier in the weekend.
Bob Maginnis, president of Maginnis Strategies, LLC., says, "NATO is fragmenting."
"Those countries are beginning to implode socially because of their outside, especially Islamic, influence, which is changing their cultures and therefore will affect their allegiance," he observes. "Not as much where Hungary, Romania, Poland and the Baltic region, but certainly in Western Europe."
Maginnis says all that is doing is strengthening what Russian President Vladimir Putin has in mind, maybe long term.
"If he lives long enough, he may decide, once he can resolve Ukraine, as to take advantage of the weakness that he perceives in NATO, especially if we realign the NATO alliance, as Trump would have it done, to be more international and not just focused on Europe," the strategic communications expert poses. "We're in a global security situation. We have to reassess those alliances."
Meanwhile, a law passed by Congress in 2023 prevents any U.S. president from pulling out of NATO without its approval.
