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 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance of 26 countries from North America (Canada and the US) and Europe (24 states, including the UK).
The alliance was formed in 1949, with member states Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, United States. In the 1950s Greece, Turkey and West Germany joined. Spain joined in 1982. Two waves of NATO expansion happened after the Cold War with Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joining in 1999, and Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia joining in 2004.
Although ostensibly set up as a defensive organisation, in 1999, its mission statement was redrawn to allow for offensive and Eurasia action.
Part of the NATO military strategy is a dependence on nuclear weapons.
Hundreds of US NATO nuclear weapons sited in Europe
Hundreds of US nuclear weapons are sited in five different European countries, the UK, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Turkey at seven different bases as part of NATO’s armaments. The weapons are B61 gravity bombs to be carried on aircraft to their destination. B61s are described as tactical nuclear weapons - they are widely defined as being more usable in the battlefield and have a variable explosive power between 0.3 and 170 kilotons (the Hiroshima atomic bomb had an explosive power of around 15 kilotons). The use of just one would cause enormous and indiscriminate loss of life, massive destruction and poisonous radioactive fallout.
Lakenheath
Over 100 US nuclear weapons are based in the UK at the United States Air Force base at Lakenheath in Suffolk. They are ready and available for rapid deployment on the F-15 ‘Strike Eagle’ aircraft. The UK has no control over their use.
Breaching the NPT
Articles 1 and 2 of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty forbid the transfer of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear weapon states, but most of NATO's nuclear weapons in Europe are located in non-nuclear weapons states. NATO’s nuclear policies clearly conflict with the legal obligations of the NPT signatories. Many of the US nuclear weapons in Europe would also be flown to their targets by the host countries’ own air forces. The US argues that the treaty will no longer apply in wartime, but maintaining nuclear weapons means that all NATO states (except France) are involved in preparation for their use in peacetime.
First use
NATO has rejected a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons. This means that the alliance would be prepared to use nuclear weapons in a first strike. The UK’s own rejection of a no first use policy is also linked to NATO’s policy – as former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon stated in 2005,
A policy of no first use of nuclear weapons would be incompatible with our and NATO’s doctrine of deterrence, nor would it further disarmament objectives.
UK nuclear weapons assigned to NATO
The UK is required to take steps to achieve nuclear disarmament. Instead over 100 US nuclear weapons are kept on British soil at Lakenheath and the UK’s nuclear weapons system has also been assigned to NATO since the 1960s; a replacement to Trident is also likely to be NATO assigned.
Ultimately the UK’s nuclear weapons could be used against a country attacking (or threatening to attack) one of the NATO member states since an attack on one NATO member state is seen as being an attack on all member states.
CND believes that Britain should withdraw from NATO, and all foreign military bases on British soil should be closed. NATO should not be expanded but should be disbanded and the influence, resources and funding of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) extended towards a nuclear free, less militarised and therefore more secure Europe.
A recent Guardian article (Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, 22nd January 2008) has revealed that a report for NATO by five of the West's most senior military officers and strategists argues it must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
Read the article here.
Read CND's response here.
Join in with local campaigning initiatives at Lakenheath by contacting Eastern Region CND
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)
Lakenheath Action Group
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