NATO

1. NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization

2. ROLE • The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) is a military alliance originally established in 1949 with 12 member states, including America, Britain and France. • Today, Nato has 28 members including most of Europe, representing a population of more than 900 million. Its headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium. • Its central purpose is set out in Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty, which says that an “armed attack against one” Nato member “shall be considered an attack against them all”. • The United Kingdom’s Joint Delegation to NATO is the vital link between the UK government and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. • Its principal roles are to promote British interests in NATO and to keep UK ministers and government departments informed about NATO discussions. • The Delegation works to ensure the UK plays a full and influential role in the North Atlantic Council, the Military Committee and across the spectrum of NATO activities. • As a Joint Delegation the Diplomatic Mission is headed by an Ambassador to NATO, Sarah MacIntosh, and a UK Military Representative to NATO, Lieutenant General George Norton. • The effect of this agreement is to bind America to defend Europe. Any aggressor who attacks any Nato ally - whether Estonia or Canada or Greece - knows that it will also have to go to war with the United States. • The aim is to keep Europe safe by deterring attack. • America's permanent commitment to protect Europe, embodied by the Nato alliance, amounts to the cornerstone of the continent's security. • This pledge is made still more formidable by the fact that America possesses the second biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. • Nato's power to deter aggression ensured the safety of Europe during the Cold War. Through all the tensions of that period, the Soviet Union never attacked a Nato member. • After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, there was a period when Nato faced no clear adversary. For the first time, there was no obvious threat to the territory of any of its members. In 2014, Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine, annexing the territory of a European country for the first time since 1945. Mr Putin then invaded eastern Ukraine, starting a war that has claimed 9,000 lives and forced 1.7 million people to flee their homes. • Since then, Nato's eastern members - particularly neighbours of Russia like Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - have felt threatened by the Kremlin. • Nato has returned to its original purpose of guaranteeing the safety of its members by deterring any attack from Russia. • The US security guarantee enshrined in Article 5 of Nato's founding treaty remains as crucial as ever.

3. ARTICLE 5 MEMBERSHIP • The UK joined 24 August 1949 (Founding member) • In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. • The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia (2004), and Albania and Croatia (2009). • Currently, Montenegro has started accessions talks and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia¹ are aspiring members. • Any decision to invite a country to join the Alliance is taken by the North Atlantic Council, Nato’s principal political decision-making body, on the basis of consensus among all Allies. • Each member country pays a certain amount into the Nato budget based on an agreed formula. Nato requires member states to spend two per cent of their nation's wealth on defence. • All members pitch that participate in the military aspect of the alliance, pitch in with forces and equipment. They remain under the command of the member country unless they're required by Nato to deal with a crisis or conflict. The current Secretary General is Jens Stoltenberg, a former Prime Minister of Norway. He has been in office since October 2014. • The Secretary General is nominated by member governments for four years, but this can be extended by mutual consent. • His job is to chair all major committees, steer discussions and help make sure decisions are implemented. His biggest role is chairing the North Atlantic Council. • What is Article 5? • Article 5 states that if a Nato ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the ally attacked. • When has Article 5 been invoked? • On the evening of 12 September 2001, less than 24 hours after the 9/11 attacks, and for the first time in Nato's history, the allies invoked the principle of Article 5. • After 9/11, there were consultations among the allies and collective action was decided by the Council. The United States could also carry out independent actions, consistent with its rights and obligations under the United Nations Charter. • On 4 October, once it had been determined that the attacks came from abroad, Nato agreed on a package of eight measures to support the United States. • On the request of the United States, it launched its first ever anti-terror operation – Eagle Assist – from mid-October 2001 to mid-May 2002. It consisted of seven Nato AWACS radar aircraft that helped patrol the skies over the United States; in total 830 crew members from 13 Nato countries flew over 360 sorties. • This was the first time that Nato military assets were deployed in support of an Article 5 operation. • It was formed in Washington on 4th April, 1949 after the end of the Second World War, largely to block Soviet expansion into Europe. • It meant that the US could have military presence across Europe which would make it easier to launch a more effective defence in the event of a Soviet attack.

4. NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL NATO PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY Role of the UK Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly The UK has 18 seats in the Assembly, which are filled by a cross-party delegation from both Houses of Parliament appointed by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. The distribution of places to political parties reflects the composition of the House of Commons. The UK delegation represents the UK Parliament, not the Government, and plays an active role in the activities of the Assembly, through membership of its Committees and groups and participation in plenary meetings. The delegation attends the two plenary sessions of the Assembly each year, which take place in the autumn (the Annual Session) and the spring. At the plenary sessions, the Assembly’s Committees debate and agree reports on various subjects and meet government officials and policy experts to inform their work. The plenary meetings allow Members to debate topical security issues, hear from and ask questions of national and international leaders, including the Secretary-General of NATO, and agree policy recommendations. The policy recommendations are distributed to governments of member states and receive a written response from NATO’s Secretary-General. In between the Assembly’s plenary sessions, the Committees meet to discuss their reports and be briefed by officials and experts in their areas of competence. • The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the principal political decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), consisting of Permanent Representatives from its member countries. • It was established by Article 9 of the North Atlantic Treaty and it is the only body in NATO that derives its authority explicitly from the Treaty. • The North Atlantic Treaty gave the NAC the power to set up subsidiary bodies for various policy functions, including a defence committee to implement other parts of the treaty. • Since 1952, the NAC has been in permanent session. • The NAC can be held at the Permanent Representative Level (PermReps), or can be composed of member states' Ministers of State, Defence, or Heads of Government. • The NAC has the same powers regardless of the formation under which it meets. • The NAC meets twice a week: every Tuesday, for an informal lunch discussion; and every Wednesday for a decision-taking session. • Usually, meetings occur amongst the Permanent Representatives who are the senior permanent member of each delegation and is generally a senior civil servant or an experienced ambassador (and holding that diplomatic rank). • The list of Permanent Representatives may be found on the NATO website. • The 29 members of NATO have diplomatic missions to the organization through embassies in Belgium. • The meetings of the NAC are chaired by the Secretary General and, when decisions have to be made, action is agreed upon on the basis of unanimity and common accord. • There is no voting or decision by majority. • Each nation represented at the NAC table or on any of its subordinate committees retains complete sovereignty and responsibility for its own decisions.

5. EXAMPLES • Kosovo intervention: • Main articles: 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and KFOR • Three trucks of soldiers idle on a country road in front of trees and red roofed houses. The rear truck has KFOR painted on is back. • German KFOR soldiers patrol southern Kosovo in 1999. • In an effort to stop Slobodan Milošević's Serbian-led crackdown on KLA separatists and Albanian civilians in Kosovo, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1199 on 23 September 1998 to demand a ceasefire. • Negotiations under US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke broke down on 23 March 1999, and he handed the matter to NATO, which started a 78-day bombing campaign on 24 March 1999. • Operation Allied Force targeted the military capabilities of what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. • During the crisis, NATO also deployed one of its international reaction forces, the ACE Mobile Force (Land), to Albania as the Albania Force (AFOR), to deliver humanitarian aid to refugees from Kosovo. • Afghanistan: • The September 11 attacks in the United States caused NATO to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter for the first time in the organization's history. • The Article says that an attack on any member shall be considered to be an attack on all. The invocation was confirmed on 4 October 2001 when NATO determined that the attacks were indeed eligible under the terms of the North Atlantic Treaty. • The eight official actions taken by NATO in response to the attacks included Operation Eagle Assist and Operation Active Endeavour, a naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea which is designed to prevent the movement of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction, as well as enhancing the security of shipping in general which began on 4 October 2001. • The alliance showed unity: On 16 April 2003, NATO agreed to take command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which includes troops from 42 countries. • The decision came at the request of Germany and the Netherlands, the two nations leading ISAF at the time of the agreement, and all nineteen NATO ambassadors approved it unanimously. • The handover of control to NATO took place on 11 August, and marked the first time in NATO's history that it took charge of a mission outside the north Atlantic area.

6. THE UN UNITED NATIONS

7. ROLE • The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that was tasked to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international co-operation and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. • The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, and is subject to extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. • The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. • Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting sustainable development and upholding international law. • The UN is the largest, most familiar, most internationally represented and most powerful intergovernmental organization in the world. • In 24 October 1945, at the end of World War II, the organization was established with the aim of preventing future wars. • At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. • The UN is the successor of the ineffective League of Nations. • The UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly; the Security Council; the Economic and Social Council; the Trusteeship Council; the International Court of Justice; and the UN Secretariat. • The UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, and UNICEF. The UN's most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese politician and diplomat António Guterres since 1 January 2017. • Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN's work. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a founding member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council. • The concept of the United Nations as an international organisation to replace the ineffective League of Nations was formulated and negotiated among the delegations from the U.S., the U.K., the Soviet Union and China at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944. • Winston Churchill urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status of a major Power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944. • After months of planning, the UN Conference on International Organization opened in San Francisco in April 1945 attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organisations involved in drafting the United Nations Charter. • The heads of the delegations of the sponsoring countries took turns as chairman of the plenary meetings beginning with Anthony Eden of Britain. • The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—the U.S., the U.K., France, the Soviet Union and the Republic of China—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.

8. UK MEMBERSHIP • As the fifth largest provider of financial contributions to the United Nations, the UK provided 5 percent of the UN budget in 2015, and 6.7 percent of the peacekeeping budget. • British English is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and the United Kingdom is home to the International Maritime Organization, whose head office is in London. • Permanent Missions of the United Kingdom to the United Nations are maintained in New York City, Geneva, and Vienna. • These diplomatic missions represent the UK during negotiations and ensure Britain's interests and views are taken into account by UN bodies and other member states. • Under the United Nations Command, the United Kingdom participated in the Korean War from 1950-53. Since then, the UK has contributed to a number of United Nations peacekeeping missions. • In the 1990s, British Armed Forces were part of the United Nations Protection Force from 1992–1995 that intervened in the Bosnian War. • The 2000 British military intervention in the Sierra Leone Civil War supported the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone. • Acting under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 in 2011, the UK and other NATO countries intervened in the Libyan Civil War. • As the fifth largest provider of financial contributions to United Nations peacekeeping, the UK provided 6.7 percent of the budget in 2013-15. • In September 2015, the UK was contributing 286 troops and five police officers to United Nations peacekeeping missions. • In November 1990, it was contributing 769. • The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 included a commitment to double the number of UK military personnel contributed to UN peacekeeping operations as well as increasing the number of UK law enforcement and civilian experts on UN peace operations and in UN headquarters. • The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), charged with ensuring international peace and security, accepting new members to the United Nations and approving any changes to its charter. • Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations and international sanctions as well as the authorization of military actions through resolutions – it is the only body of the United Nations with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states. • The council held its first session on 17 January 1946. • The Security Council consists of fifteen members. • The great powers that were the victors of World War II – the Soviet Union (now represented by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, China, and the United States – serve as the body's five permanent members. • These can veto any substantive resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or nominees for the office of Secretary-General. • In addition, the council has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve a term of two years. The body's presidency rotates monthly among its members.

9. EXAMPLES • Beginning in the last decades of the Cold War, American and European critics of the UN condemned the organization for perceived mismanagement and corruption. • In 1984, the US President, Ronald Reagan, withdrew his nation's funding from UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, founded 1946) over allegations of mismanagement, followed by Britain and Singapore. • Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General from 1992 to 1996, initiated a reform of the Secretariat, reducing the size of the organization somewhat. His successor, Kofi Annan (1997–2006), initiated further management reforms in the face of threats from the United States to withhold its UN dues. • In the late 1990s and 2000s, international interventions authorized by the UN took a wider variety of forms. • The UN mission in the Sierra Leone Civil War of 1991–2002 was supplemented by British Royal Marines, and the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was overseen by NATO. • In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq despite failing to pass a UN Security Council resolution for authorization, prompting a new round of questioning of the organization's effectiveness. • Under the eighth Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the UN has intervened with peacekeepers in crises including the War in Darfur in Sudan and the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sent observers and chemical weapons inspectors to the Syrian Civil War. • In 2013, an internal review of UN actions in the final battles of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 concluded that the organization had suffered "systemic failure". • One hundred and one UN personnel died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the worst loss of life in the organization's history. • The Millennium Summit was held in 2000 to discuss the UN's role in the 21st century. • The three day meeting was the largest gathering of world leaders in history, and culminated in the adoption by all member states of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a commitment to achieve international development in areas such as poverty reduction, gender equality, and public health. • Progress towards these goals, which were to be met by 2015, was ultimately uneven. The 2005 World Summit reaffirmed the UN's focus on promoting development, peacekeeping, human rights, and global security. • The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015 to succeed the Millennium Development Goals. • United Nations Security Council Resolution 687, adopted on 3 April 1991, after reaffirming resolutions 660, 661, 662, 664, 665, 666, 667, 669, 670, 674, 677, 678 (all 1990) and 686 (1991), the Council set the terms, in a comprehensive resolution, with which Iraq was to comply after losing the Gulf War. Resolution 687 was passed by 12 votes to one against (Cuba) with two abstentions from Ecuador and Yemen after a very extended meeting.[Iraq accepted the provisions of the resolution on 6 April 1991.

10. THE EU THE EUROPEAN UNION

11. ROLE • The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. • It has an area of 4,475,757 km2 (1,728,099 sq mi) and an estimated population of about 513 million. • The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where members have agreed to act as one. • EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. • For travel within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished. • A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002 and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. • The EU and European citizenship were established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993. • The EU traces its origins to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), established, respectively, by the 1951 Treaty of Paris and 1957 Treaty of Rome. • The original members of what came to be known as the European Communities were the Inner Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany. • The Communities and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. • The latest major amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009. • While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the United Kingdom signified the intention to leave after a membership referendum in June 2016 and is negotiating its withdrawal on 29 March 2019. • Covering 7.3% of the world population, the EU in 2017 generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of 19.670 trillion US dollars, constituting approximately 24.6% of global nominal GDP. • Additionally, all 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. • In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. • Through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. • The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7 and the G20. Because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower.

12. UK MEMBERSHIP • The United Kingdom is a member country of the EU since January 1, 1973 with its geographic size of 248,528 km², and population number 64,875,165, as per 2015. The English comprise 12.8% of the total EU population. • The UK is one of 28 member states of the European Union and is subject to European Union (EU) legislation. • UK government ministers are involved in deciding this legislation and should not agree to proposals before Parliament has examined them. • The United Kingdom holds 73 seats in the European Parliament and held the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU 5 times between 1997 and 2005. • The United Kingdom is not a member country of the Schengen Area. • The UK Permanent Representation to the EU represents the UK in negotiations that take place in the EU. • UKRep ensures the UK’s interests are promoted and explained to other Member States and the EU Institutions on the whole range of EU business. • Parliament’s role in Europe: scrutinising EU draft legislation and other EU documents, changing UK law to reflect agreed EU legislation and treaties and holding the government to account on its EU policies and negotiating positions in the EU institutions. • The EU has the authority to apply legislation in the UK but actually putting it into action may require Parliament to pass new or amended legislation. • The Scrutiny Reserve Resolutions • The Scrutiny Reserve Resolutions provide that no government minister should agree in the Council of Ministers or the European Council to a proposal that is still 'subject to scrutiny' by Parliament - and if they do, they have to explain their reasons. • The UK Parliament receives copies of EU documents, together with an Explanatory Memorandum (EM) prepared by the relevant government department. Documents are considered by the Scrutiny Committees in both the Commons and the Lords. • The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, also known as the EU referendum and the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate if the country should remain a member of, or leave the European Union (EU), under the provisions of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 and also the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. • The referendum resulted in 51.9% of votes being in favour of leaving the EU. • Although legally the referendum was non-binding, the government of that time had promised to implement the result, and it initiated the official EU withdrawal process on 29 March 2017, meaning that the UK is due to leave the EU before 11PM on 29 March 2019, UK time, when the two-year period for Brexit negotiations expires.

13. RIGHTS The European Union is based on a strong commitment to promoting and protecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law worldwide. Human rights are at the heart of EU relations with other countries and regions. EU policy includes: promoting the rights of women, children, minorities and displaced persons opposing the death penalty, torture, human trafficking and discrimination defending civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights defending human rights through active partnership with partner countries, international and regional organisations, and groups and associations at all levels of society inclusion of human rights clauses in all agreements on trade or cooperation with non-EU countries The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953. All Council of Europe member states are party to the Convention and new members are expected to ratify the convention at the earliest opportunity. The Convention established the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Any person who feels his or her rights have been violated under the Convention by a state party can take a case to the Court. Judgments finding violations are binding on the States concerned and they are obliged to execute them. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe monitors the execution of judgements, particularly to ensure payment of the amounts awarded by the Court to the applicants in compensation for the damage they have sustained. The compensations imposed under ECHR can be large; in 2014 Russia was ordered to pay in excess of $2 billion in damages to former shareholders of Yukos. Examples of Articles / Rights: Article 2 protects the right of every person to their life. Article 3 prohibits torture and "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". Article 5 provides that everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. Article 6 provides a detailed right to a fair trial. Article 9 provides a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

14. COMMON POLICIES • The Union’s objectives can be read in the Lisbon Treaty Art. 3 TEU and include, among others: • the promotion of peace and the well-being of the Union´s citizens • an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers • sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and social justice • a social market economy - highly competitive and aiming at full employment and social progress • a free single market • The Union shall also combat social exclusion and discrimination and promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and the protection of children's' rights. • The European Union also establish a set of values in Article 2 TEU. The EU Court can take values and aims into account when it decides on case law. • The first and most important EU objective was the establishment of a common market. • Subsequent treaties included the aims of establishing: an Economic and Monetary Union; a Common Foreign and Security Policy; and, an area of Justice and Home Affairs. • The Lisbon Treaty includes an even wider range of objectives. • The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). • The Treaty of Lisbon was signed by the EU member states on 13 December 2007, and entered into force on 1 December 2009. • It amends the Maastricht Treaty (1993), known in updated form as the Treaty on European Union (2007) or TEU, and the Treaty of Rome (1957), known in updated form as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (2007) or TFEU. • It also amends the attached treaty protocols as well as the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) • The European Union has established a single market across the territory of all its members representing 512 million citizens. • In 2017, the EU had a combined GDP of $21 trillion international dollars, a 17% share of global gross domestic product by purchasing power parity (PPP). • As a political entity the European Union is represented in the World Trade Organization (WTO). EU member states own the estimated second largest after the United States(US$98.2 trillion) net wealth in the world, equal to 25% (US$78 trillion) of the $317 trillion(~€280 trillion} global wealth. • 19 member states have joined a monetary union known as the eurozone, which uses the Euro as a single currency. • The currency union represents 342 million EU citizens. • The euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar.