NATO and International Law

In this lecture, Jan Wouters, Professor of International Law and International Organizations, and Ambassador Dirk Wouters will discuss NATO’s role in international affairs. In 2024, the North Atlantic Alliance celebrated its 75th anniversary. The Washington Treaty, which established NATO, was signed by 12 states on April 4, 1949.

NATO’s primary task, as laid down in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, is collective self-defense: the Allies commit to defending any other Ally if an armed attack, as defined in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, occurs on Allied territory. Throughout the Cold War, Article 5 was never invoked. In fact, it has only been invoked once—in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, which took place on U.S. soil.

Although collective self-defense is the only power explicitly mentioned in the Washington Treaty, NATO now conducts non-Article 5 crisis management and response operations around the world. The Alliance has since expanded to 32 members, with Sweden and Finland joining recently in response to Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine.

This presentation will explore NATO as an international organization under international law. How has it evolved over time? How does it make decisions and address new security threats? What are the obligations of its members? What are NATO’s achievements and challenges?

Jan Wouters is Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations, Jean Monnet Chair ad personam and Director of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and the Institute for International Law at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He also serves as Administrator of the America Europe Fund and is Of counsel at Omega Law. He is Visiting Professor at Paris2 and the College of Europe and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. He has published widely on international and EU law, global governance and international organizations.

Ambassador Dirk Wouters is Advisor to the Belgian Royal Family, organizing trade missions abroad. He is also Co-Chair of the America Europe Fund at the University of Leuven, Belgium, where he teaches on transatlantic relations as Adjunct professor. He has had a very distinguished diplomatic career, with postings in Rome and at the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the UN in New York, as Permanent Representative of Belgium to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union (EU) and to the EU, and as the Belgian Ambassador to the United States of America. He served as Chief of Staff to the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and was Diplomatic Advisor and Sherpa for Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy. He sits on the Board of Governors of the University of Leuven.

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact ies@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days before the event.