The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and its principal decision-making body the North Atlantic Council (NAC), was founded in April 1949 to oppose the Soviet Union. . It initially began with 12 members, 10 of whom were European, with the 2 American members being Canada and the United States. Before the attacks of September 11th 2001, 7 more European members had joined. . The “ current” committee for BATHMUN 2025 consists of Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. In addition to these voting committee members, NATO welcomes four observer nations who can help by pledging assistance bilaterally with NATO. These are Australia, Finland, New Zealand and Pakistan. About the Committee 6 NATO is a defensive military alliance, it has some major functions which UN committees do not. The mandate for actions NATO can discuss and/or take are: Discussing defense spending of NATO members, Calling for military assistance within NATO members, The invocation of Article 5 and military responses to attacks, Discussions over the stability of the North Atlantic, Expansion of NATO membership