People & Politics # NATO Turns Sixty -- North Atlantic Treaty Organization Through the Years # 27.02.2009

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has come a long way since its inception in 1949. During the Cold War, NATO’s policy was primarily one of containment, designed to keep the Soviet "iron curtain" from encroaching further upon western Europe. But nowadays former Soviet states have been incorporated into the alliance, and the organization is having to adapt to respond to new emerging threats. An example of this is the NATO multinational corps in the Polish city of Szczecin, which has served to further military cooperation between East and West. The multinational corps is now to increase its involvement in Afghanistan, in the next ISAF mission there in 2010.