Does Article 5 immediately apply if a Member State is attacked?
New. When a Member State is attacked, the country itself determines how it responds to the attack. For example, the attacked country can opt for a bilateral solution, do nothing or invoke Article 5. If the latter happens, NATO will meet in an emergency session. The member states then determine whether and how they will come to the rescue: with military action or, on the contrary, with political action.
It is therefore not necessarily the case that if a NATO member state is attacked by another country, other NATO countries are immediately (militarily) involved in the conflict. The attacked country must therefore first invoke Article 5. After that, the NATO countries decide together how they will respond to the attacked country’s call. So there are still steps and time between invoking Article 5 and the involvement of other NATO countries in a conflict.
Has Article 5 ever been invoked?
Article 5 has only been invoked once since 1949. The United States did so in 2001, after the attacks on the World Trade Center. In response to the terrorist acts, a coalition of NATO countries left for Afghanistan.
What role does Article 5 play in the war in Ukraine?
In fact, NATO and Article 5 do not currently play a direct role in the war in Ukraine. That country is not a member of NATO, so an attack on Ukraine does not mean an attack on the alliance. Also, NATO countries are not obliged to intervene militarily or politically. Ukrainian President Zelensky has asked several times to allow his country to join, but there has been no response.
Article 5 could eventually play a role, namely if the war is also waged outside Ukraine. If Russia decides to attack a NATO member state, the attacked country can invoke Article 5.
At the start of the war, NATO countries already indicated that they would not intervene militarily in Ukraine or establish a no-fly zone. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed this several times in his speeches. Additional NATO troops and equipment have been sent to Eastern Europe.
The attitude of NATO countries changes when a member state is attacked directly. This was confirmed by US President Biden, among others, at the beginning of the war. There is “no doubt” about Article 5, Biden said. An attack on “one of us is an attack on all”.
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