Is there a law that explicitly forbids ex-NATO members from rejoining if they left to avoid going to war because of Article 5?

Question

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_110496.htm

Collective defence means that an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies.

What prevents a member country to leave NATO to not have to go to war against a country that attacked and then join NATO again after the war is over. Is there a law that forbids countries from doing so explicitly, and if not why isn't it explicitly written in law?

I highly suspect this is answered by If a NATO member state enters a war, are other NATO members obligated to assist it? - i.e. NATO members are not obligated to assist, so there's no need to leave. — CDJB, Aug 15 '23 at 12:09
What would it take for a NATO member to leave? answers part of the question. — Rick Smith, Aug 15 '23 at 12:17

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 15 '23 at 15:40

NATO is a treaty organization. As such, it gives itself rules which are not laws because they are a treaty. So the short answer to your question is "no."

The long answer to your question is "the question is based on flawed assumptions and no meaningful answer is possible."

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 15 '23 at 12:15

6

New (and rejoining) members need every existing member to agree in order for them to join. If someone tried this it would be highly unlikely that they could get every member to agree to let them rejoin.

answered Aug 15 '23 at 12:15

Joe W

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score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 16 '23 at 02:04

I interpret your question as something similar the following scenario:

One day an alien warship lands in (say) Spain and the aliens proceed to wage a war of conquest. Spain is a NATO member, so Spain calls for help from NATO. Neighbouring country France (say) decides they don't want to fight the aliens, so they pull out of the treaty. Some time later, after the war is over, France attempts to rejoin NATO.

There's no law that says a country can't apply to join NATO, but there is a law that says every NATO member has to approve before a country can be admitted, and in the above scenario of course Spain (and most probably the rest of NATO that did respond to Spain's call for help) will veto France rejoining.

Is there a law that explicitly forbids ex-NATO members from rejoining if they left to avoid going to war because of Article 5?

3 Answers3