North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Quiz

Answer: 1949

The NATO alliance agreement was signed on 4 April 1949 by twelve states in Washington, D.C.: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States.

Answer: Lester B. Pearson

Lester B. Pearson was serving as Secretary of State for External Affairs in Canada from 1948 to 1957 when he drafted the treaty. He was responsible for ending the Suez Crisis in 1956. He later became the 14th Canadian prime minister from 1963 to 1968.

In 1950, Dwight Eisenhower was appointed as the supreme commander of NATO.

Answer: West Germany

West Germany joined the alliance in 1955. USSR and eight Eastern European states responded by forming the Warsaw Pact. Italy joined the alliance in 1949, and Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2004.

Answer: France

In 1966, President Charles de Gaulle demanded that all military headquarters and installations not under French command should depart French territory by 1967. However, France only withdrew from the NATO's integrated military command structure. France still remained an active member of the alliance itself and French personnel continued to serve at NATO's political headquarters in Brussels and also liaison offices at the other military headquarters.

Answer: The Warsaw Pact disbanded

Following the collapse of USSR and Yugoslavia, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. NATO reacted by setting up the North Atlantic Cooperation Council as a forum for consultation between NATO members, former Communist states in Eastern Europe, and former USSR republics.

Answer: Yugoslavia

In 1991, the end of Cold War led to the breakup of Yugoslavia. From 25 June 1991 to 27 April 1992, several new states were established. After a ministerial session in Oslo in June 1992, NATO announced their plans to support peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia under the authority of UN Security Council. This plan was approved by the NATO foreign ministers in December 1992.

Answer: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Operation Deliberate Force was a sustained air campaign by NATO, supported by UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) ground operations. The campaign was to intervene against VRS in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War.

After the massacres in Srebrenica and Markale, followed by the shelling of Sarajevo marketplace on 28 August 1995 by the VRS, NATO decided to take action.

The air campaign was carried out between 30 August and 20 September 1995, involving 400 aircraft and 5000 personnel from 15 nations. More than 300 Bosnian Serb targets were hit and destroyed. The campaign lifted the siege of Sarajevo leading the way for a negotiated settlement for peace.

The Republic of Srpska (1992-1995) was a self-proclaimed state in south-east Europe under the control of VRS. VRS was led by Ratko Mladic and Radislav Krstic. Both Bosnian Serbs were convicted by UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Mladic was found guilty by ICTY in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison. Krstic was found guilty ICTY in 1998 and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Answer: Czech Republic

Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic became the first former USSR bloc states to join the NATO, taking the alliance's border about 640 km (400 mi) from Russia.

Answer: Kosovo

In 1989, the imposition of a direct rule from Belgrade of a predominantly Albanian province led to racial violence between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic ordered the policy of ethnic cleansing, which resulted in a large outflow of refugees and many people being internally displaced.

When all diplomatic actions had failed, NATO launched an air strike to halt the humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo. In 1999, "Operation Allied Force" was carried out for 78 days from 24 March to 10 June, forcing FR Yugoslavia to withdraw all its military, police and paramilitary forces from Kosovo.

Milosevic was indicted in May 1999 for his role in the Kosovo War by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He was charged for crimes against humanity in Kosovo. On 11 March 2006, he was found dead in his prison cell in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention center in The Hague, Netherlands.

Answer: Ukraine

On July 2002, Secretary-General Robertson visited Ukraine to discuss about further political, economic and military reforms before Ukraine can join the alliance.

Ukraine applied for a NATO Membership Plan (MAP) in 2008. However, the MAP was shelved following the 2010 presidential election in which Viktor Yanukovych, who preferred to keep the country closer to Russia, was elected president.

George Robertson, a British politician from the Labour Party was the 10th Secretary-General of NATO. He served from 1999 to 2003.