NATO. Brief History and Mission

NATO Brief History and Mission

I Lead-in

A)  What ideas come to your mind when you hear the word ‘NATO’? Take 3 minutes to write down your associations or ideas and then compare your lists with other students.

B)   Do you know what the word NATO means? What does this abbreviation stand for?

C)   Have you heard any news about NATO recently? What news about NATO can you find on TV, online or in newspapers?

II Match the words with their meanings.

rivalry; soulmate; set up; satellite; attention; guard; defence; alliance; immigrant; trade; partner; burden

1.    to start a new business or organization

2.    a group of countries who have agreed to work together because of shared interests or aims

3.    to protect someone or something from being attacked 

4.    country controlled by or depending on a more powerful country

5.    a situation in which people compete with each other for the same thing

6.    a person or an organization associated with another

7.    something difficult or unpleasant that you have to deal with or worry about

8.    protection or support against attack

9.    someone who you have a special relationship with

10.a person who has come to a different country in order to live there permanently

11.the activity of buying and selling, or exchanging goods between countries

12. notice, thought, or interest

III Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

Organization; setting; partners; increasingly; satellites; soulmates; guard; defender; various; immigrants; set; superpower; emigration; trade; pressure; spend; defensive

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty 1)______, was 2)______up in 1949. It began as a 3)______alliance between American and Western European powers to 4)______against the Soviet Union and its Communist 5)______involved in a tense rivalry with the West after the Second World War.

It is now 6)______particularly from Donald Trump in the United States who thinks that his European 7)______don’t carry their fair share of the burden and wants them to 8)______a lot more money on defence. And there are 9)______fundamental reasons why Europe and America are not quite the same 10)______ as they used to be. Time was 100 years ago when almost all of the 11)______in America or the foreign-born population were from Europe, now only 10% are. America’s 12)______is getting pulled off towards China and China itself is the rising rival 13)______, so America’s attention is 14)______drawn towards the Pacific rather than across the Atlantic.

IV Match the words from two columns to make collocations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	defensive	a)	rival superpower
2.	Western European	b)	reason
3.	tense	c)	powers
4.	carry their fair	d)	population
5.	fundamental	e)	alliance
6.	foreign-born	f)	rivalry
7.	rising	g)	share of the burden

V Study the transcript above and fill in the gaps in the sentences with the prepositions.

against; up; under; in; with;  towards; on; off

 1.    NATO is now ____ pressure from Donald Trump in the United States. Donald Trump thinks that his European partners don’t spend much money ____ defence.

2.    It began as a defensive alliance to guard ____ the Soviet Union and its Communist satellites.

3.    Today America’s trade is getting pulled ____ towards China.

4.    Communist countries were involved ____ a tense rivalry ____ the West after the Second World War.

5.    America’s attention is increasingly drawn ____ the Pacific.

6.    NATO was set ____ in 1949.

VI Watch the video again and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

I think it’s importance/imported/important to say that NATO’s been extraordinary successful/succeed/successor. It’s often called the most successful ally/alliance/allied in history. The average lifespan over the past 500 years for a collective/collected/collector defence alliance is just 15 years and NATO is 70. So it’s a great success story although it’s true that Asia is erasing/rising/raising in particular and also other merged/emerging/submerging markets are becoming more important, the relatively/relationship/related between Europe and America remains a terribly strong one. $3 billed/billion/billing worth of trade every day, lots of shared interest, shared valuable/valid/values, sometimes wobbly at the edges, but nevertheless, mentality/fundamentally/fundamental a shared leap in democracy which is something that can’t be said for, for example, China and Russia and more authoritarian gyms/regimes/regimens that America and its European partners increasingly forefront/upfront/confront.

VII Find the words in the text that have the following meanings.

1.    having achieved a lot, become popular

2.    the length of time for which an organization exists

3.    a nation's economy that is progressing toward becoming bigger and more industrialized

4.    the way in which two things are connected

5.    the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief

6.    demanding that people obey completely and refusing to allow them freedom

7.    deal with a difficult situation  

VIII Match the words from two columns to make collocations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	extraordinary	a)	story
2.	average	b)	lifespan
3.	collective	c)	values
4.	success	d)	market
5.	in	e)	regime
6.	emerging	f)	defence alliance
7.	shared	g)	interest
8.	shared	h)	successful
9.	authoritarian	i)	particular

IX Match the words with their meanings.

a)    indulge

b)    gap

c)    spend

d)    vigorously

e)    nostalgia

f)     geopolitics

g)    promise

h)    capability

i)      GDP

j)     take something into account

k)    woefully

l)      fed up

m)  challenger

n)    threaten

o)    prosperity

p)    relevant

1.    to tell someone that you will  cause problems if they do not do what you want

2.    connected with what is happening

3.    to tell someone that you will certainly do something

4.    the state of being successful and having a lot of money

5.    to allow yourself or another person to have something enjoyable

6.    to give money  for something

7.    the total value of goods and services produced by a country in a year

8.    bored, annoyed, or disappointed

9.    in a very bad or serious way

10.an empty space

11.a feeling of  slight sadness when you think about the past

12.in a very energetic way

13.someone who tries to win a competition from the previous  leader

14.to consider or remember something when judging a situation

15.the ability to do something

16.the study of the  influence  country's size and position have on  its relationships with other countries

X Watch the video and fill in the gaps in the text.

In order to stay relevant for the 1)_____, NATO needs to do a number of things. First of all, it needs to live up to the things that it’s already 2)_____ to do and back in 2014. NATO 3)_____promised that they would aim to spend 2% of GDP on 4)_____, a lot of countries are woefully short of that, so that’s task number one. The 5)_____in particular need to get much more serious about plugging gaps in their own defence capabilities but perhaps the biggest 6)_____is the third one, responding to the rise of China, a new 7)_____where geopolitics is going to look very different and NATO needs to really work towards a new sort of 8)_____between Europeans and America that can really take into account a 9)_____to China as a rival challenger increasingly in the future.

Really the 10)_____for NATO is that if it doesn’t respond vigorously enough. America in particular will go its own 11)_____, it’ll get fed up, it’ll decide as 12)_____Trump has already threatened to do that it will just do its own thing and 13)_____ ____. That would be very 14)_____for many Americans but particularly for the European Allies. If NATO plays its 15)_____right, I think it will continue to have a critical 16)_____in the peace and prosperity for the coming 17)_____and that’s the hope but it should be very firmly setting its sights on the future as it 18)_____its 70th birthday rather than indulging in nostalgia for the 19)_____. 

XI Match the words from two columns to make collocations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	stay	a)	serious about
2.	do a number	b)	of things
3.	get much more	c)	vigorously
4.	new sort	d)	role
5.	rival	e)	fed up
6.	respond	f)	away
7.	go its	g)	challenger
8.	get	h)	own way
9.	walk	i)	relevant for the future
10.	have a critical	j)	of partnership

XII Watch the part of the video and mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1)    NATO stands for the North American Treaty Organization.

2)    NATO was set up after the Second World War.

3)    NATO is now under pressure from Angela Merkel in the USA.

4)    In the past almost all of the immigrants in America were from Europe.

5)    Today America is interested in trade with China.

6)    Nowadays Chile is a new rising superpower.

7)    NATO is often called the most unsuccessful alliance in history.

8)    As a rule collective defence alliances exist for 15 years.

9)    NATO is 90 years old.

10)        Relations between America and Europe is extremely weak today, there are no trade contacts.

11)        Northern Caribbean states and emerging markets are becoming more important.

12)        Authoritarian regimes have shared interests and shared values with NATO.

13)        America and its European partners confront authoritarian regimes.

14)        To stay relevant NATO needs to spend less money on defence.

15)        NATO needs to think about China as a rising superpower.

16)         

XIII Watch all parts of the video and answer the questions.

1)    Where and when was NATO founded?

2)    What was the original mission of NATO?

3)    Why is NATO under pressure from Donald Trump?

4)    How are the relations between America and its European partners different today?

5)    What is the role of China in America’s interests and trade?

6)    Why is NATO often believed to be the most successful defence alliance in history?

7)    What do America and Europe share or have in common?

8)    What does NATO have to do to stay relevant for the future?

9)    What do the Europeans need to do to help NATO stay successful?

10)            What are the dangers for NATO?

XIV These sentences have been scrambled. Can you put them in the correct order?

1 as began alliance a defensive American between and It Western European powers.

2 they and America are be. the same soulmates Europe as used to not

3 NATO was created the its Soviet Second against Union and to Communist satellites after the guard World War.

4 is NATO 70.

5 off towards is getting pulled America’s trade China.

6 have and America and lots of Europe interest shared shared values.

7 NATO was in up 1949. set

8 In the past almost were from the immigrants in America all of Europe.

9 NATO’s most the called often successful alliance in history.

10 thinks on Trump spend that European partners need to Now more money Donald defence.

11 and The between Europe relationship America remains strong a one.

12 NATO needs to work a America. new Europeans of partnership between towards and sort

XV OVER TO YOU.

A)  Think about the role of NATO today. What challenges or concerns does it deal with? What are the problems NATO will face in future? Note down your thoughts. Be ready to share your ideas with the rest of the class and give a 2 minutes speech about NATO’s role today.

B)  What are the relations between your country and NATO? How will these relations change in future? Note down your thoughts. Be ready to share your ideas with the rest of the class.