Free Essay Sample on The United States and International Law

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 in Western Europe to protect them from invasion by the Soviet Union. It is a military and political alliance whose aim is to promote democratic values between the member states. The member states are allowed to cooperate and consult issues related to security and defense as method long-term solutions to these problems (Friedman 1). Additionally, NATO promotes peaceful means of conflict resolution. However, if that fails, they may result in military power. Apart from the United States which is the primary financier of NATO, other sources include Italy, UK, Belgium, Canada, and France among others.

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The United States government affects NATO is two major ways. First, it is the largest financier of the organization and many of its sub-units (Friedman 1). It can therefore easily influence the decisions and contributions made by other members like Montenegro to the organization. The US government uses a lot of money to finance NATO projects as a method of ensuring that it does not go bankrupt and an alliance between the Western European states remains active. In this way, the United States promotes peace and cross-border peace and development in the member countries.

Also, the United States government provides the largest share and also the best-equipped force to NATO. The USA military department has many specially trained agents who are very resourceful to the organization in case a military approach is needed to initiate its goals (Schake 1). Moreover, the United States of America has a lot of advanced military technology that eases the work of the army agents of NATO. For this reason, most of the NATO countries give the United States of America a lot of attention especially regarding policy development and decision-making in the organization.

As a result of United States direct involvement in NATO, some of the member states like Russia and Germany have termed the organization as obsolete. In his inauguration speech, President Trump acknowledged that NATO is not outdated but has developed counter-terrorism strategies needed to protect all its members (Schake 1). Therefore, it is possible to argue that due to the United States direct involvement and control of NATO, other countries have felt left out especially in the development of policies and major decision making. Consequently, the power and influence of NATO have considerably dropped which is why other countries considered it obsolete.

Works Cited

Friedman, George. "Where does the relationship between NATO and the U.S. go from here?" HuffPost, 31 January 2017. Accessed on 11 May 2018 from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nato-and-the-united-states_us_5887844be4b08f5134b624ca

Schake, Kori. "Europe in the Age of Trump: NATO without America?" The American Interest, vol. 2, no. 6, 25 May 2017. Accessed on 11 May 2018 from https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/05/25/nato-without-america/