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My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. I am not an MD so I cannot diagnose and treat your sleep problems. As well as writing this blog, I am also the Online Discussion Expert for PLoS. This is a personal blog and opinions within it in no way reflect the policies of PLoS. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com

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A Query

Category: Politics
Posted on: October 7, 2006 6:44 PM, by Coturnix

How many countries has NATO intervened in since it was founded?

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Depending on how you define "intervened" and "country," the answer is two to twelve or more. NATO has engaged in a number of operations for the defense of its members, such as sending the German airforce to defend the Atlantic air approaches to the US following 9/11. Actual operations as NATO in countries outside of the territory of the members, I believe, is limited to two (or six, seven, or eight) countries: Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. You, of all people, understand the difficulty of determining how many countries Yugoslavia was at any given moment in the nineties.

Posted by: John McKay | October 7, 2006 11:27 PM

Does the first Gulf War count?

Was there nothing earlier than Balkans? All those decades of doing nothing anywhere?

Posted by: coturnix | October 7, 2006 11:29 PM

The official NATO homepage (http://www.nato.int/ ) has a pull-down menu Topics - > Operations&Missions -> Past but I am not sure that list is complete.

Posted by: coturnix | October 7, 2006 11:31 PM

couturnix, NATA was created as a defence pact, nothing else, and to the extent it prevented WW III I wouldn't say it did nothing. In fact, the intervention in Kosovo violated the rules of NATO until they were changed some months later.

Posted by: Thomas | October 8, 2006 12:35 AM

..."doing nothing" was in the context of the topic of the post, i.e., "intervention", not doing nothing about anything. And I am fully aware that the intervention in Kosovo was illegal...

Posted by: coturnix | October 8, 2006 12:39 AM

Do you count only interventions by NATO, or also interventions by members of NATO?

By the way, have you seen this? Apparently, US troops shot an Iraqi civilian in the head and tried making it look like he was a terrorist.

Posted by: Alon Levy | October 8, 2006 2:54 AM