Invoking Article V: NATO’s Entangling Alliance
With a little over a year before the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the United States has attempted to navigate complicated global crises without being drawn into additional conflict. Without a doubt the current crises in North Korea and Syria have tested that resolve. While the case for support or intervention can be debated within Congress and the corridors of the West Wing, one potential document has the legal authority to bind the United States to action without debate, public approval, or a congressional vote. Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty obliges the United States and its signatories (twenty-eight member countries in total) to collective defense in the event one of the member states is attacked. Similar to the alliance system that helped expand the Great War, this agreement continues to increase in members with Albania and Croatia joining in 2009, adding to the increased potential for errant state actors.