The Senate voted on protocols to the North Atlantic Treaty that created the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 that would expand the military alliance to include Finland and Sweden. For the protocols to become effective, all 30 current NATO members must approve them.
The Senate overwhelmingly approved the protocols on August 3, 2022 by a vote of 95 to 1 (Roll Call 282), far in excess of the two-thirds majority vote needed to ratify treaties. We have assigned pluses to the nay because NATO is based on the principle of collective security, as opposed to each country acting in its own best interests. Under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them … shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them … will assist the Party or Parties so attacked.” The expansion of this entangling military alliance, which was comprised of just 12 members at the time of its founding, increases the likelihood of the United States being drawn into a military conflict.
