From neutrality to alignment: Portugal and the establishing of North Atlantic Treaty

Abstract

The issue of Portugal and NATO has been approached, both from a political-diplomatic and from the strategic-military point of view, but it is always the evolution of the international environment or Portugal's foreign policy, which make it relevant and, thus, place it within the framework of a commonplace perspective. The same cannot be said about the approaching of the issue from a historical perspective, which is further removed and rigorous and, particularly, regarding the North Atlantic Treaty's formation and its first steps. This is the fundamental objective of this work, to study the Portuguese position in the international context which led to the establishing of the North Atlantic Treaty and also to search for the answer to three fundamental  questions: what was Portugal's role as founding member? What was Salazar's role in this process? What were the consequences of Portugal joining NATO both on its national and foreign policy? The first part of this article deals, briefly, with the history of this issue by setting and pointing out the problems with its guidelines. The second part deals with the evolution of the post World War II international environment and, in particular, the question of European security and the context in which NATO was formed. The third deals with Portugal's joining of NATO and the decision-making process that led to it. This is done by attempting to understand the role of the political decision-maker, within the framework of the external and internal circumstances.