Explained: Poland Missile Strike, What's NATO And How Does NATO Collective Defence Work?

A missile landed in a village in Poland on the border with Ukraine on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday. The missile killed two people. 

While Poland's government and US President Joe Biden excercised caution and assessed the evidence, several reactions quickly pointed out that Russia has escalated the war with Ukraine by striking a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member. Artis Pabriks, Deputy Foreign Minister and Defence Minister of Latvia,  a fellow NATO-member, was among those.

Shortly after the first reports of missile strike emerged, Pabriks termed it as a strike by "criminal Russian regime" on NATO territory.

"My condolences to our Polish brothers in arms. Criminal Russian regime fired missiles which target not only Ukrainian civilians but also landed on NATO territory in Poland. Latvia fully stands with Polish friends and condemns this crime," said Pabriks in a tweet.

In a later tweet, Pabriks referred to the invocation of Article 4 of NATO Treaty, which calls for consultations when a country feels "territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties [NATO-member] is threatened".

The NATO as well as the Polish government on Wednesday said that the missile that killed two people was a Ukrainian missile, not Russian. They further said they do not consider the strike to be a deliberate attack by Russia.

Here we explain what's NATO, how does its collective response work, and how has it responded to the Poland missile strike so far.

What we know of Poland missile strike?

A missile landed in Przewodow village in eastern Poland. The village is apprximately 6-7 kms from Ukraine border, according to measurements on Google Maps.

The missile landed in an area where grain was kept for drying. Two people were killed in the strike.

Initial reports said that two missiles had landed in Przewodow but later reports said only one missile was involved. The Polish government was reported as saying that the missile was "Russian-made", but, importantly, the government did not say the missile was fired by the Russians. Ukraine, a former Soviet Union territory, also has a large number of Soviet- and Russia-origin military equipment. 

The Associated Press, however, reported a senior US official as saying the missile that landed in Poland and killed two people were fired by Russia.

However, a later AP story quoted three US officials as saying that the missile was a Ukrainian air-defence missile fired at incoming Russian missiles.

What's NATO, what are its objectives?

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is a military alliance of 30 countries. It's committed to securing the Atlantic and European regions.

NATO is rooted in the Cold War (1945-91), which was a competition between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also simply called the Soviet Union. The Cold War divided the world into two blocs — a US-led bloc and a USSR-led bloc. 

The US-led bloc founded NATO in 1949 and the the USSR-led bloc of mainly Eastern European countries founded Warsaw Treaty Organisation in 1955.

Countries across the world were mostly allies or partners of one of the two superpowers. While there was no "hot war" between the United States and Soviet Union, the two countries entered into several proxy conflicts, such as USSR destabilising democratic governments in Europe and the United States intervening in Afghanistan against the Russian occupation. Besides geopolitical contest, there was also an ideological aspect of Cold War. The USSR promoted communism and the United States promoted capitalism.

A history of NATO on its website lists three objectives of the alliance:

• Deterring Soviet expansionism
• Forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent
• Encouraging European political integration

During the Cold War, NATO developed and followed "Massive Retaliation" doctrine. 

"If the Soviet Union attacked, NATO would respond with nuclear weapons. The intended effect of this doctrine was to deter either side from risk-taking since any attack, however small, could have led to a full nuclear exchange," says the NATO history. 

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, and to some extent even before it, the focus of NATO turned to territorial integration, political stability, and ensuring a stable security architecture in the region. 

Since then, NATO has responded to ethnic conflict in former Yugoslavia and has participated in the US-led War on Terror in the wake of the September 11 attacks (9/11 attacks) in the United States. 

The key feature of NATO is its 'collective defence' principle, which means that an attack on one member country will be considered as an attack on all member countries and would allow for the alliance to mount a collective defence against any aggression. This allows smaller countries a security assurance that bigger countries such as the United States, France, and United Kingdom will come to their defence when needed.

How does NATO's collective defence work?

Article 5 of the NATO treaty allows for the collective defence mechanism to be implemented. 

Contrary to the popular opinion, the collective defence mechanism does not automatically gets implemented and it's a choice, rather than a compulsion.

"The Parties [NATO members] agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that...each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked," says NATO Article 5.

Therefore, Article 5 needs to be invoked for NATO's collective defence to be mounted.

Even with the invocation of Article 5, there is no compulsion on each member to provide a fixed number of soldiers or arms. It depends on the situation and national and collective resources available. NATO has deployed battle groups and other multi-national military formationsa cross Europe to respond to any crisis.

"This is an individual obligation on each Ally and each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary in the particular circumstances. This assistance is taken forward in concert with other Allies. It is not necessarily military and depends on the material resources of each country. It is therefore left to the judgment of each individual member country to determine how it will contribute," says NATO on its website.

The Article 5 has so far been invoked only once after the 9/11 attacks.

Further, NATO Article 5 are subject to parliaments of member countries, which means if the United States or Germany have to send troops to defend a foreign country under collective defence mechanism, they need to get an authorisation from their parliaments, notes Katherine Yon Ebright of Brennan Center for Justice. 

"In the United States, that means securing express authorisation from Congress, which has the sole constitutional power to declare war and is responsible for military appropriations and oversight," notes Katherine and highlights that it does not violate US President's role as Commander-in-Chief.

She further notes, "Constitution vests the president with the power to defend US territory and citizens, even without express authorization. But it does not permit the president to use force against an adversary who poses no direct threat to the United States, as would be involved in a military campaign to assist a NATO ally."

This is why the assistance to Ukraine by the United States is routed through US Congress. 

NATO response to Poland missile strike

NATO has said that there is no indication that the missile strike in Poland was a Russian attack. It has also said there is no change in NATO's threat perception, while stressing that investigations into the Poland missile strike are on.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday also said that Russia still bears responsibility for the incident, according to Guardian.

"Russia bears responsibility for what happened in Poland yesterday, because this is a direct result of the ongoing war and the wave of attacks from Russia against Ukraine yesterday...Nato is preparing for accidents like this to prevent them from happening, and if they happen to ensure that they don’t spiral out of control," said Stoltenberg.

NATO role in Ukraine War

NATO has coordinated the assistance to Ukraine from amongst its member countries. 

The members of NATO, led by the United States, have equipped Ukraine with high-end weapons and intelligence that has been key to Ukrainian war efforts so far. Billions of dollars of worth of weapons, including ammunition, rocket launchers, artillery, and air defence systems, have been provided to Ukraine.

As of November 10, the United States has provided and committed assistance worth $19.3 billion to Ukraine. 

While NATO members individually are providing military equipment, the focus of NATO as a group is on non-lethal aid.

"NATO is helping to coordinate Ukraine’s requests for assistance and is supporting Allies in the delivery of humanitarian and non-lethal aid...At the Madrid Summit in June 2022, Allied leaders agreed a strengthened package of support for Ukraine, which includes support in secure communications, fuel, medical supplies, body armour, winter clothing, equipment to counter mines and chemical and biological threats, and portable anti-drone systems," says NATO on its website.

It adds that the collective defence mechanism assures security to members and enables them to provide further assistance.

It says, "More broadly, NATO’s Article 5 security guarantee and its ironclad promise of collective defence provides Allies with the confidence that they can send weapons to Ukraine without diminishing their own security."