Why Every NATO Member Joined (And Why Everyone Else Hasn't)

if NATO chose to reform to include states like Australia and Japan they could be called the "Pacific Ocean & Trans Atlantic Treaty Organization" or POTATO for short.

The reason NATO is not including Japan, Australia, New Zealand is that it would transform it into Trans-Oceanic Treaty Organization. And TOTO would be into Africa too.

There's something that's honestly so tragicomical about how pretty much every single post-Warsaw pact country immediately flocked to NATO as soon as they were free from Soviet influence.

I love how the first secretary general of NATO was like, "The Germans are madmen and we're all fucked if we can't control them. Oh yeah also Russia."

I wouldn't say Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia wanting to join NATO was that surprising to Russia. Those three was where demonstrations to leave the USSR was the strongest, because they viewed themselves under occupations rather than Soviet Socialist Republics. After WWII, the Red Army had to fight 30K Lithuanian partisans, 10K Estonian partisans, and 10K Latvian partisans until 1956. Not to mention the big Baltic Way peaceful protest on August 23, 1989 where two million people formed a human chain from Tallinn to Vilnius. They were the first three nations to leave the Soviet Union

Albania had left the Warsaw pact since the 60s, as a sign of protest against the Chzechoslovakian invasion by USSR & co. So Albania was not the last but the first to abandon Warsaw pact.

When you manage to get both Finland and Sweden to join NATO with one military move… you know you FD up.

Austria is maybe not in the official NATO, but the country is (like many other countries that are not members of NATO) in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) which is sometimes called mini NATO since many states comply with NATO standards and they are allowed to send troops for peace support operations.

8:25 it should be noted, Australia is a NATO Partner, just not a NATO Member. Australia was also invited to attend the NATO summit. Australia has worked with NATO to a level no other non-NATO member has.

It's easy to undervalue what an important shift this is for Sweden. It has been neutral longer than even Switzerland (although the latter is more known for it). This is a huge change.

Finland's Neutrality was never really honest desire for neutrality but a political stance out of self preservation. People were supportive of NATO as an organization, but afraid that joining would cause conflict with Russia and sour many business dealings the country had with them (this happened anyway with all the sanctions) Just like some of the countries never wanted to be occupied by Russia again, Finland has always been weary of Russia and preparing for a Russian invasion since WW2. War in Ukraine changed things. A lot of people started treating Russia as too unpredictable and the sham neutrality was finally thrown away. Now it is deemed risky to not join. Joining Nato became a popular option overnight, but the seeds for this attitude were always there, Russia's attack on Ukraine just caused them to finally start growing.

From recollection, Greece wanted to join, but then because of Greece's conflict would have meant that Turkey would have drifted closer to Soviet Union if not in NATO meant Turkey must be asked to join is how that part played out. It wasn't as simple as "Greece and Turkey hopped along later for the same reasons."

you forgot about the time Russia specifically asked to join NATO. it was basically a plot to get NATO to admit they were an anti-russia club and they had no intention of joining but they still applied

Fun fact: Germany was at war with Andorra from 1914 to 1956, because noone remembered to invite Andorra to the negotiations for what would become the Treaty of Versailles. (At least i think it was Andorra, was some Microstate though)

Wow 🤯 This was such a great video! Definitely keep up the good work! ✌🏻

Very well structured and explained video. Thank you!

NATO has another advantage that most people rarely think about. In a sense NATO is a European "police force" that prevents the members of NATO going to war with one another. Article 5 means that the NATO effectively police one another because any attack on one NATO country is regarded as an attack an attack on all; therefore, deterring NATO member from attacking one another. if anyone thinks this absurd consider that Greece and Turkey are both members of NATO.

Mexico also has a policy of non-intervention and joining a military alliance goes against that principle. The issue of joining NATO was discussed in their government before, but it didn't get far. They are however friendly with NATO.

This was great! Thanks!

Great video. Thank you! :D