Setenta anos de Aliança Atlântica - a urgência na adaptação a novos desafios num complexo contexto geopolítico

The purpose of this article is to address three challenges that will be critical to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and would not be predictable seventy years ago. This organization is based on the Treaty of the North Atlantic (also known as Washington Treaty), signed 4 April 1949, which defines principles and commitments still valid today. First, NATO's potential adversaries will may explore unconventional strategies in the socalled gray zone conflict. Cyber operations are an example of an unconventional approach, as opposed to the intervention of conventional military forces such as military equipment and human resources operating on the ground. Second, the rise of China could create security dynamics that likely will lead to a weakening of the Atlantic Alliance. China has been reveal divergent strategic interests and priorities among the members of the Atlantic Alliance, leading the United States of America, on its own initiative, to shift its focus to the Asia-Pacific region and to redefine its geopolitical strategy that could cause weakening and loss of notoriety to NATO. Thirdly, despite the Nato-Russia Council of 2002, which aims a balance of power between Allies and Moscow, it is well known that russian policy makers continue to understand NATO's enlargement to the east as a strategy to disfavour Russia. As a reaction, Russia has been leading the effort to strengthen the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which raises the spectre of "re-sovietisation". This paper intends to contribute to the debate on the urgency of NATO to adapt to new challenges in a complex geopolitical context, keeping its founding principles and promoting democratic values.