North Atlantic Treaty Organization - 1949 Topic A: International Security Topic B: Organization Expansion and Administration MUNUC 32 TABLE OF CONTENTS ______________________________________________________ Letter from the Chair………………………………………………………….. 3 Letter from the Crisis Director………………………………………………...4 NATO in a Nutshell……………..……………………………………………... 5 Topic A: International Security……………………………………………… 6 Statement of the Problem…………………………………………….. 6 History of the Problem………………………………………………… 12 Possible Solutions………………………………………………………. 18 Bloc Positions…………………………………………………………… 24 Glossary…………………………………………………………………. 26 Topic B: Organization Expansion and Administration…………………. 27 Statement of the Problem…………………………………………….27 History of the Problem………………………………………………… 29 Possible Solutions………………………………………………………. 34 Bloc Positions…………………………………………………………… 36 Glossary…………………………………………………………………. 38 Bibliography……….…………………………………………………………. 39 2 North Atlantic Treaty Organization - 1949 | MUNUC 32 LETTER FROM THE CHAIR ______________________________________________________ Dear Delegates, Welcome to the NATO! My name is Ethan Della Rocca, and I will be taking on the role of committee chair. My co-executive, Nikolai, and I have been on three committees together, and I am thrilled to be working with him once again during my final MUNUC conference. I know that this coming weekend will be a memorable one for all of us, and I’m very excited to meet you all. Until then, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a fourth year at the University of Chicago, majoring in both classical studies and philosophy. Hailing from Connecticut, I spend much of my time helping to run committees in UChicago’s high school MUN tournaments. This is my third time chairing a committee at MUNUC. Last year I was the chair for the Cabinet of Hoover 1929 committee. As members of this committee, you will be charged with drafting the foundational documents of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization and ensuring the security of every member nation. In topic A we will debate the best ways we can provide collective security for all the nations of NATO. In topic B we will discuss the structure of NATO itself - how NATO will be run, the foundational beliefs of the organization, and whether NATO is open to future expansion. Each one of you has something to bring to the table. While I’m sure many of you have knowledge about this time period already, as you do more research into the history, keep in mind how you can influence our path forward. Each of you can make your mark on this committee in your own, sometimes unexpected, way. The road we take is truly up to your choosing. The better prepared you are, the better you’ll know what paths lie open to you. However, what matters above all else is that you have fun and enjoy this weekend! I sincerely hope that you all have a good experience this year and learn something new along the way. That is what matters most of all. If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to contact me or my co-executive. We’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. 3 North Atlantic Treaty Organization - 1949 | MUNUC 32 Best, Ethan Della Rocca Chair, The North-Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949 LETTER FROM THE CRISIS DIRECTOR Dear Delegates, Welcome to the NATO, or rather, what will hopefully become NATO. My name is Nikolai Eklund and I am thrilled to spend my last MUNUC conference as your crisis director. As chair, I will not just be a distant parliamentary overseer, but also an active participant in enforcing the true vision of the club. NATO will be a unique committee that seeks to augment traditional GA mechanics with treaty crafting and crisis elements. I have been on three committees with Ethan and there is nobody else who I would want as my co-executive. On a more personal note, I am a fourth year pre-medical student and either a Public Policy Studies and Russian and Eastern European Studies double major. Born in the frozen wastes of Minnesota, I have gradually warmed to this other Midwestern climate. In previous MUNUCs, I served on the Cabinet of Russia, the UNSC, and the Paris Peace Conference. I am also a regular at the University of Chicago’s college school conference, ChoMUN. Outside of MUN and academics, I am active in the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or just because you can at [email protected]. Best regards, Nikolai 4 North Atlantic Treaty Organization - 1949 | MUNUC 32 NATO IN A NUTSHELL ______________________________________________________ In the universe of the committee, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) does not exist yet and it will fall to delegates to actually create it, but it is important to understand roughly what the real- world NATO looks like in practice. NATO was created with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on the 4th of April, 1949. The treaty actually entered into force on August 24th, 1949. There were originally twelve founders, though NATO expanded to a whopping twenty-nine members as of 2017. The vast majority of nations are in Europe, save for the United States, Canada, and the now-dubious Asian member of Turkey. The United States and Turkey currently make up the vast majority of NATO- allied forces, though both increasingly corrupt countries have expressed doubts about their membership in NATO. NATO was founded with the purpose of protecting Western Europe with a mutual self- defense clause from a Soviet attack, though this thankfully never came to pass. In response to NATO, the Soviet Union assembled its satellite states into a largely similar coterie called the Warsaw Pact. The only time that NATO’s famed Article Five was ever activated was in the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attacks on September 11th. In addition to the famous Article Five, NATO also has a slightly less intense Article Four that has been invoked several times about military consultation, not military attack. Public opinion surveys raise significant doubts about whether or not NATO member states’ populations would actually be willing to provide military aid to a country other than their own. 5 North Atlantic Treaty Organization - 1949 | MUNUC 32 TOPIC A: INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ______________________________________________________ Statement of the Problem The Purpose of NATO The end of World War II has brought relative peace to Europe and the world. Yet that peace is at best a shaky truce that seems perpetually on the brink of collapse. Fundamentally, NATO is a security system meant not only to prevent the outbreak of conflict, but also to secure victory and a stable peace should conflict ever arise. While this is the core purpose of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, we must now decide how best to achieve these goals. There are a number of threats which the members of NATO now face, and any policy which we create must be fit to address any and all of these concerns. This is not to say that the purpose of NATO is to fix the problems that we face today. Rather, we must keep in mind what those dangers and make sure that we are prepared for whatever might happen. Therefore, the task that the member nations have before them is to define a system which best ensures the security of NATO’s member states no matter what the future holds. The Best Defense is a Collective Defense Collective defense is an integral part of the NATO alliance. As a group committed to defending each other, NATO bolsters the security of each of its member nations and dissuades would-be aggressors from launching any sort of an attack. What the member states of NATO must decide is the obligations that each nation has in regards to defending other member states. Some might argue for strong agreements that require military action on behalf of all member states should even one member be attacked. Others argue for less extreme measures, such as an agreement only to provide aid, be that military or otherwise. There are of course fears that requiring any retaliatory action is a surefire way to bring about another world war entirely. 6 North Atlantic Treaty Organization - 1949 | MUNUC 32 The way in which the member nations choose to define their agreement of collective defense will have a broad impact on international issues. The member nations must think carefully about how they wish to position themselves in these larger problems. East and West Berlin: A Tale of Two Cities All of Berlin is inside of Soviet-controlled East Germany, yet the city of Berlin is itself currently split into East and West Berlin. West Berlin is controlled by the Americans, French, and British, while East Berlin is controlled by the Soviet Union.1 Progress towards reunifying Berlin, if present at all, has been slow. The British, French, and American sectors have been joined together into one large sector, forming West Berlin.2 However, the Soviet sector, East Berlin, remains separate from the rest of the city, and tensions between the Soviets and the Western Allies over the city have only grown. The ongoing blockade by the Soviets of West Berlin and subsequent effort to airlift in much needed supplies has only added to these tensions.3 East and West Berlin seem primed to ignite another large scale conflict. Control over the city is important not only in the rebuilding of Germany and the denazification of Germany’s political 1“Milestones: 1945–1952 - Office of the Historian.” Accessed October 21, 2019. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/berlin-airlift. 2 GANZERT, FREDERIC W. “The ERP and Western Germany’s International Relations.” World Affairs 113, no. 2 (1950): 42– 45. 3 Berlin Airlift. 7 North Atlantic Treaty Organization - 1949 | MUNUC 32 system, but symbolically as well. Berlin offers the Soviets a way of expanding their influence westward into Europe itself.