why is austria not in nato|how they can be part of nato
With tensions rising between east and west once more,
today we're taking a look at how new nations can join NATO, and why they might even be interested in doing so in the first place.
How can a nation join NATO? First though, what is NATO exactly? In the last months of World War II, with a German defeat looming, the United States began to consider the future of Europe. For centuries, Europe had been a hotbed of warfare, with different political alliances forming, splintering, and re-forming in war after devastating war. Wary of European aggression and being dragged into yet a third World War, the United States began to consider plans to ensure long-term stability and peace in Europe. At war's end, and with the near-collapse of the European economy, the United States implemented the Marshall Plan, named after Secretary of State George Marshall. The Marshall Plan would allocate $12 billion dollars- or $154 billion in today's dollars- to the reconstruction of Europe. Yet with tensions rising between Western Europe and the Soviet Union and its communist satellite states, a great deal of reconstruction aid promised to the Soviet Union during the war was never realized, leaving Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin furious at America's broken promises. Threatened by what he saw as closer cooperation between Western Europe and the US, Stalin implemented the Berlin Blockade in 1948, cutting off Berlin from the West.
Only with a massive airlift effort coordinated by the US to deliver food and supplies to the german citizens in Berlin was war between east and west averted. Yet the specter of war loomed large, and amidst the threat of new conflict, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed the Brussels Treaty in March 1948, assuring collective defense between the nations should any one of them be attacked. Not long after, President Truman began to pitch to the American congress the idea of a peacetime military alliance with Europe, which quickly gathered support. Thus, in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed, committing the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom to a mutual defense treaty- an attack on one would be considered an attack on all. Since its original signing in 1949, NATO would grow to 29 countries, including: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and of course the United States.
Outside of member states, NATO also holds close partnerships with a number of different nations, from Armenia and Austria, to Kazakhstan and the Ukraine. So, with nearly a dozen countries vying to join NATO, what then does it take to join the world's most powerful military and political alliance? First, nations seeking membership are voted upon by current NATO members, allowing existing members a chance to express their concerns over a new nation's joining- such as is the case currently with Ukraine and Georgia, both NATO partners who are seeking full-fledged membership. The US, Great Britain and France have all expressed concern about admitting these two nations for fear of further inflaming tensions with Russia, who vehemently opposes the expansion of NATO- specifically to nations on its own doorstep. As the alliance's primary purpose is to prevent war, not start one, a nation's membership can be delayed indefinitely pending global politics. Yet should a nation be accepted into the membership process, NATO analysts then assign each applicant nation a Membership Action Plan (or MAP)- a series of military, political, economic and legal criteria that must be met for membership. Each MAP has five chapters: political and economic issues, defense and military issues, resource issues, security issues, and legal issues, yet there is no set formula and each plan is uniquely tailored to individual nations. The first chapter of a MAP- political and economic issues- requires candidate nations to firstly have a stable and democratic system of government and establish civilian control of the armed forces. Along with the prerequisite for democracy, a nation must show a strong commitment to the rule of law and human rights- despots need not apply. It also requires a nation have friendly relations with its neighbors and identifies any existing territorial and ethnic disputes, and demands that they be settled peacefully. The second chapter of a Membership Action Plan- defense and military issues- requires nations to reform their armed forces to NATO standards.
While it doesn't require an exact mirroring of NATO military structure, it does mean that a nation's armed forces must have an established chain of command free of corruption. Chapter two also calls for a nation to allocate a set minimum of its annual budget to defense spending in order to contribute to the robust defensive capabilities of the alliance. Chapter three of a MAP- resource management- calls for a nation to ensure its own stability via resource and energy security. An aspiring nation must have a stable domestic or foreign source of the basic resources of modern civilization and the ability to reliably provide for its own long-term energy needs. Chapters four and five- legal and security issues- requires a nation to rework its national legislation to accommodate the requirements of NATO alliance, chiefly the commitment to war on occasion of an attack against a member nation. It also requires that a nation's government infrastructure be up to NATO standards to ensure the security of classified information shared between member states and necessary for the proper functioning of the alliance. A Membership Action Plan thus paves the road for NATO membership, but achieving the goals set forth in a MAP can be tricky and sometimes take a decade or more to achieve, such as in the case of Montenegro. Even then, a nation on NATO's fringes and hoping to join the alliance can find itself under indirect attack by Russian sources, who see the expansion of NATO as a direct threat to its own security and ability to exert its influence on the world stage.
Once more, in the case of Montenegro, an attempted government coup on the eve of it joining the alliance was traced back to Russian intelligence operatives, and had they been successful, its planned ascension to NATO in 2017 would have been reversed by the new, pro-Kremlin government. With such blatant manipulation of non-allied nations, those on the outside have been increasingly looking to join. Sweden, a historically neutral nation, shocked the world recently by announcing that it was strongly considering joining NATO as either a full or partial member. In response, Russia immediately began flights of nuclear bombers to Sweden's borders, and even dispatched attack subs to inside Swedish territorial waters all in a bid to intimidate the nation. With the stage set for a new East versus West showdown, perhaps it is time to expand NATO after all- European history has shown for centuries that the only deterrent to war on the continent has always been strong political and military alliances. So, should NATO risk raising Russia's ire further by expanding to include more European nations? With other countries around the world like Japan, Singapore and even Columbia all expressing interest in membership, should NATO expand outside of the Atlantic? Could a global network of allied, democratic nations set the stage for a more peaceful and prosperous future for all? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! Also, check out our other video, Why Did the soviet union fail. Thanks for watching and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time! almost immediately after the end of the second world war both the u.s and several western european security services cooperated to create several stay-behind networks their purpose was to conduct clandestine and guerilla warfare operations to resist in the event of an invasion by the ussr and their eastern allies the existence of these networks was officially confirmed in november of 1990 by the italian prime minister giulio andriodi this is how the general public learned about the italian stay behind operation known as gladio but which is a name that has become synonymous with the whole concept of anti-communists stay behind operations in our previous episode on the origins of gladio we covered the beginnings of the program with a deep dive into the former axis powers of italy and germany well west germany we also discussed how some of these clandestine organizations may have been involved in criminal activities including state-sponsored terrorism but we'll drag into those murky waters in a future episode i'm your host david and today we're going to kick off a grand tour sans jeremy clarkson or richard hammond of course to learn more about the creation of gladio equivalent organizations in western europe and beyond this is the cold war with all the research and editing and shooting we do it's hard to find time for self-improvement so i was happy when i discovered the sponsor of this video blinkist blinkist condenses thousands of popular modern books into 15-minute audios so that you can then listen to them podcast style it allows me to save time and still continue learning without making sacrifices in other areas of my life i use it when i'm walking my dog or doing chores around the house being able to access all blinkist titles while offline makes my hikes more fun our viewers will surely enjoy the spy and the traitor by ben mcintyre telling one of the greatest espionage stories of the cold war that of oleg gordievsky the soviet double agent whose efforts contributed to the end of the cold war while kathryn belton's putin's people is a shocking account of the corruption and political schemes that swirl around russia's infamous president vladimir putin and his close inner circle you'll love the newest addition to blinkist premium subscribers get 65 off the regular retail prices of the full-length audiobook so what are you waiting for the first 100 people to go to blinkist.com cold war get unlimited access for one week to try it out you'll also get 25 off when you subscribe to the full membership by the early 1950s every nato member state had its own local version of gladio coordinated by the clandestine planning committee interestingly.
however the concept was not a prerogative of natal members even neutral countries not tied to any military alliance with the us or the west developed their own clandestine anti-soviet resistance movements now if you think about the word neutrality you're probably picturing switzerland the alpine state has a history of neutrality dating back to the reformation and has not participated in a foreign war since officially proclaiming its neutrality in 1815. nonetheless the swiss government still had fears of an invasion by the red army and its allies in the post-second world war period and as such developed plans to combat and resist that invasion a first doctrine considered by the government was that of total partisan warfare conducted by the entire population this approach commonly associated with the swiss defense strategy was later made popular by major heinz von dach in his 1957 manual total resistance the swiss general staff eventually opted for a plan which emphasized conventional defensive military action should that fail however the swiss government was to relocate to the irish republic and from there maintain regular contact with a pre-established clandestine network in switzerland the swiss version of gladio was initially called special service then later renamed p26 this stay-behind organization consisted of three levels the first at the top a small group of senior army officers responsible for administration and training the second level was made up of trusted persons spread across switzerland and in charge of recruitment the third part was made up of the resistance fighters themselves who had authority to recruit further personnel the ideal p26 member would have been a balanced low-profile stress-resistant and trustworthy individual members were to have a regular job but one that could easily provide excuses for frequent absences to attend training camps once enrolled the members were trained in sabotage gorilla and exfiltration tactics these programs were developed closely with the help of the british special air service and some of p26 cadres even trained in great britain after completing boot camp the p26 recruits were assigned to their units in one of 80 locations spread across the country each unit consisted of six to ten members and each unit was split into two cells an active cell and a sleeper cell in case of capture or elimination of the active cell the sleeper cell would then kick into action interesting detail here the active cells had no knowledge of the identities whereabouts or sometimes even the existence of the sleeper cells in case of shall we say forceful interrogation active operatives would therefore not be able to reveal the details on their sleeper colleagues these cells typically included a communications expert a courier and a demolition specialist they would be coordinated by an operational chief who i bet loved it when a plan came together finally as was the case with italian gladio each unit would have access to a cache of weapons explosives radios and other specialized equipment and as was the case with gladio the p26 network was revealed to the public following a parliamentary inquiry in november of 1990. unlike in other european countries however the anguary found no reason to believe that p26 had been involved in illegal activities even the involvement of british special forces in the training arrangement was not deemed a violation of swiss neutrality okay so now we're going to move slightly east to switzerland's neighbor no not listenstein i mean austria as we discussed in our episode on austria's postwar transition the country was one of the hottest spots of the cold war in europe due to its proximity to the iron curtain and its neutrality which allowed easier operations for intelligence services from both sides of the ideological divide the tangible threat of a soviet re-invasion however prompted right-wing activists theodor susic and hugo rostner to create a partisan network almost immediately after the end of the war the conspiracy was unveiled in 1947 and the two leaders declared on trial that they had been carrying out their operation with the full knowledge and support of the us and british occupying powers susek and rosner were sentenced to death but were both later pardoned the idea to establish a clandestine anti-soviet network was resuscitated following the general strikes in october 1950 communist-led industrial action eventually failed to gain popular support but worried the austrian government enough that they decided to cooperate with the us uk and french security services to set up a local gladio of their own the main local coordinator was social democrat mp and later minister of the interior france ola who had been one of the main opponents of the strikes ola's organization recruited about 2 000 members operating under the code name austrian association of hiking sports and society or owsgv which just makes me wonder what if someone tried to join with a genuine interest in alpine trails and sports and instead found themselves training on how to blow up soviet tanks now speaking of blowing things up one of the main topics in the ows gv training curriculum was in fact how to use modern plastic explosives ola even admitted having a small arsenal in his office always at the ready.
Because you know you'd never know when you might need to blow something up like a tank or the incoming male or maybe even just that guy down the hall that you just know doesn't wash his hands after using the washroom but anyway the existence of the ows gv was of course a well-guarded secret until 1996 at least that's when a boston globe article revealed the existence of a cia arms cache in austria the austrian chancellor franz frenitsky denied any knowledge of the stay behind plans which may have actually been true u.s state department spokesman nicola burns admitted that following the foundation of ows gv successive washington administrations simply decided not to talk to the austrian government about it okay now we're going to move into northern europe to review the clandestine networks that were set up in neutral sweden and finland the operations here by the way as well as in the nato members of norway and denmark were set up by cia agent william colby during the second world war colby had served with the oss in norway which is why he had been picked for this mission by jerry miller deputy chief of cia's western european division and lou shearer the head of the scandinavian branch in april of 1951 colby was posted to stockholm posing as a junior political attache at the u.s embassy from there colby set to work immediately in norway and denmark he organized the local gladios with the open support of nato and the local governments but in neutral sweden and finland the situation was trickier and colby had to act alone with only the unofficial help of local military and civilian volunteers especially in finland the cia had to move with extreme caution first of all a local stay-behind network had already sprung up as early as october 1944 shortly after the end of the continuation war against the ussr army officers acting independently took to hiding weapons and ammunition to resist a feared soviet occupation one of them was the legendary larry tourney already familiar to fans of the metal band sabaton as the soldier of three armies for those of you who may not know tourney fought communism first with the finnish army then as a waffen ss captain he then later re-emerged as a u.s green beret captain larry thorne serving in vietnam the clandestine activities of tourney and other high-ranking officers had been exposed in 1945 by the communist minister of the interior and the valpo the state police this became known as the scandal of the weapons cash case moreover finland and the ussr were tied by the agreement of friendship cooperation and mutual assistance of april 1948.
colby's superior made it clear that any operations carried out in finland had to be kept extremely quiet to prevent any provocation of the soviet union in his memoirs william colby explained his working method and how he worked to maintain the utmost secrecy to be clear however he never disclosed whether this was applied to sweden finland or both colby would typically start by recruiting a member of the local secret services a local army officer and a civilian the officer and the intelligence agent would be in charge of recruiting and training for their operatives the civilian would take care of psychological warfare operations these included activities such as curating a library of local literature and music as a means to keep up morale after a soviet occupation in his autobiography colby admitted to building a second tier clandestine network without the knowledge nor cooperation of the recruited locals some of these assets were us citizens many of scandinavian descent they were journalists academics or business owners people whose day job could justify their frequent movements within sweden and finland mainly to distribute and hide radio equipment this second tier network would act as a backup organization in case the first local gladio equivalent was dispersed for any reason in the summer of 1953 colby was transferred to rome so the running of the stay behind organization in sweden was left in the hands of the domestic security police the secure gets police or sapple when sappo identified and vetted a potential recruit the new agent was sent to be trained in a farm just outside eaton in england according to one of these recruits the british secret services and special forces were masters in the art of running a secret resistance network following a script we've heard many times now the swedish and finnish stay-behind networks were exposed in 1990. in sweden chief of staff general bank gustafsson openly admitted to its existence and again allegations appeared in the press that the secret army had pursued domestic goals by criminal means the most serious allegation was that the network had been involved in the assassination of swedish prime minister olaf paula in 1986 but this is an allegation which remains unfounded in finland the presence of a gladio was dismissed by defense minister elizabeth wren as a fairy tale or at least an incredible story of which i know nothing but the big reveal was confirmed by former cia chief of station in helsinki dave whipple whipple confirmed the importance of maintaining a strong sleeper army in a country that shared such an extended border with the ussr the cia agent did not disclose the size of the organization but he did admit the vast presence of regular armed forces personnel whose duty was also to counter a potential increase in power of the local communist party we hope you've enjoyed today's episode our tour of the vast european stadium networks will continue in future episodes as we still have to cover how clandestine gorilla armies were set up in france southern europe and even luxembourg to
