Friday, June 15, 2012

NATO Members' Militaries

22-1-27 Kazakhstan & Ukraine: Russia's Political and Military Manipulations - VP > .
Geostrategic Projection
European Geostrategic Projection ..

Enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the process of including new member states in NATO. NATO is a military alliance of twenty-eight European and two North American countries that constitutes a system of collective defense. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which allows only for the invitation of "other European States", and by subsequent agreements. Countries wishing to join have to meet certain requirements and complete a multi-step process involving political dialogue and military integration. The accession process is overseen by the North Atlantic Council, NATO's governing body.

After its formation in 1949 with twelve founding members, NATO grew by including Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in 1955, and then later Spain in 1982. After the Cold War ended, and Germany reunited in 1990, there was a debate in NATO about continued expansion eastward. In 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined NATO, amid much debate within the organization and Russian opposition. Another expansion came with the accession of seven Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. These nations were first invited to start talks of membership during the 2002 Prague summit, and joined NATO shortly before the 2004 Istanbul summit. Albania and Croatia joined on 1 April 2009, prior to the 2009 Strasbourg–Kehl summit. The most recent member states to be added to NATO are Montenegro on 5 June 2017 and North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.

As of 2021, NATO officially recognizes three aspiring members: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine. Future expansion is currently a topic of debate in several countries outside the alliance, and countries like Sweden, Finland, and Serbia have open political debate on the topic of membership, while in countries like Ukraine, support and opposition to membership is tied to ethnic and nationalist ideologies. The incorporation of countries formerly part of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union has been a cause of increased tension between NATO countries and Russia.

NATO Members Countries
?? 2021 Luxembourg Military Strength ??

The Partnership for Peace (PfP) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) program aimed at creating trust between NATO and other states in Europe and the former Soviet Union; 20 states are members. It was first discussed by the Bulgarian Society Novae, after being proposed as an American initiative at the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Travemünde, Germany, on October 20–21, 1993, and formally launched on January 10–11, 1994 at the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium. According to declassified U.S. State Department records, President Bill Clinton characterized the Partnership for Peace as a "track that will lead to NATO membership" and that "does not draw another line dividing Europe a few hundred miles to the east."

Possible future NATO membersPartnership for Peace participants

 Partnership for Peace Participants

NATO Commitment

22-10-19 How NATO Solves Its Abandonment Problem - Spaniel > .
23-9-23 Erdoğan's Turkey is NATO's Biggest Internal Problem - Real > .

Naval Interoperability and Cooperation


Chief of staff of the French Navy Adm. Pierre Vandier hosted U.S. Navy's Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Mike Gilday and Royal Navy's First Sea Lord, Adm. Tony Radakin in Toulon, France, to discuss interoperability and cooperation between the three major navies.

Nervous Neighbors

2019 Sweden encouraging citizens to become preppers - SBS > .
23-10-3 Finland's 🇫🇮 impact on NATO - NATO > .
23-6-17 Finlandization - 74-year delay in Finland's joining NATO - GeoPer > .
23-6-4 Finland's NATO war preparations on new frontline with Russia > .
22-12-10 Sweden's joining NATO would crush Russian power - Caspian > .
22-7-22 Poland could become strongest land force in the EU - Binkov > .
22-6-12 Estonian Military Vulnerabilities - Task > .
22-3-23 Polish citizens join army b/o Russian invasion of Ukraine - BBC > .
22-3-10 Sweden's pro-NATO reaction to Russian aggression - Force Tech > .

Geostrategic Projection
European Geostrategic Projection ..

As Estonia grapples with integrating its Russian and Estonian populations, the influence of Russian state media is still felt in the country and is accused of spreading mistrust and disinformation.
The Estonian government are encouraging initiatives to integrate the Russian-speaking community into Estonian society. ‘The problem is that the Estonian language just isn’t used here. At work we only speak Russian’, says Dmitri, an engineer living in the border town of Narva. Russian-speaking people in Estonia are less likely to get vaccinated than ethnic Estonians; ‘when you turn on the Russian TV and are told every day that Western vaccines are harmful, this is going to have an impact’, says Katri Raik, mayor of Narva. A new Russian-Estonian television channel, ETV+, has been set up to provide the Russian-speaking population with news free from Putin’s influence. The channel was created ‘in order to inform them and give more objective local information about what is happening in Estonia in order to create an alternative to Russian media’, says Ekaterina Taklaja, the editor-in-chief.

NRF & VJTF

22-4-20 Why NATO's Rapid Response Force Might not Work - Task & Purpose > .
23-7-15 Desert Rats & NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force - Forces > .
23-1-9 NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) - Forces > .
22-7-21 Why Every NATO Member Joined (Why Others Haven't) - Spaniel > .
Thucydides' Trap - Bellum Praeparet >> .

NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF, Spearhead Unit) was created in 2014, following Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and crises in the Middle East. Germany has just [2023] taken over from France, which led the force in 2022. In response to Russia's full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February last year, NATO deployed elements of the VJTF to Romania on the unit's first collective-defence mission.

The NATO Response Force was first organized in 2002. Passing through several different phases, it has fluctuated in size and has changed its purpose frequently — from a security force to a ground warfare asset.

The NATO Response Force (NRF) is a high-readiness force comprising land, air, sea and special forces units capable of being deployed quickly. Until February 2022, when NATO activated it in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, units assigned to the NRF had only been used to assist with disaster relief and security at high-profile security events. On 25 February 2022 after a NATO meeting, the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) was activated for the defense of members of the alliance, for the first time.

Rotating forces through the NRF requires nations to meet the demanding standards needed for collective defence and expeditionary operations. As the standards are very high, participation in the NRF is preceded by a six-month NATO exercise program in order to integrate and standardize the various national contingents. Generally, nations carry out a pre-training period in preparation for the NATO exercises of between 6–18 months. Once activated, Reconnaissance Teams deploy within 5 days. This is the first of a number of deployment phases that lead to the deployment of the entire HQ Joint Task Force and Immediate Reaction Forces within 30 days.

The NRF comprises up to 40,000 troops and includes units from several countries that do not belong to NATO: non-member partners, Finland, which first contributed forces in 2008; Sweden, 2013; Ukraine, 2014;[9] and Georgia, 2015.

The NRF trains for various tasks, including:

sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...