IS WORLD WAR III ABOUT TO BREAK OUT?

Following a press conference in NATO on the attacks of NONA in the Northern Sea, the representatives of the member states were questioned as to how they intend to respond to the crisis. NATO has been maintaining a defensive stance against NONA, having taken measures that intend to simply minimize the impacts of previous attacks and prevent future ones rather than attacking the organization. 

 The representative of Portugal, agreed to an interview , even after accusing the media of “wasting [the member states’] time”. When asked on whether they would be open to NATO adopting a more offensive approach in dealing with NONA, the representative of Portugal stated that “We are in talks with France and we are thinking of invoking Article 5 and declaring war on NONA and Russia to deal with the situation” followed by “we cannot just sit and do nothing - we’ve been sitting here like ducks”.

Article 5 states the following:

“The Parties 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, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. 

Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.”

An invocation of Article 5 would constitute a proper declaration of war of all member states against NONA which is fueled by Russia. Given the extensive number of states that would be involved, a conflict of that scale would likely be classified as a World War.

However, opinions regarding the invocation of Article 5 vary with the representative of the United States stating that “We do not intend on initiating any situation where we go on the offence.”

Additionally, tensions within NATO member states, seem to be rising, with the delegate of Portugal accusing representatives of other member states, such as Canada, of “voting no on every bill just because they don’t like one part of it” and “wanting to see Europe, America, and members of NATO fall because they don’t want to deal with the present problem that we want to deal with.”  

Given that one of NONA’s prime objectives was to destabilize Western alliances, their attacks seem to have been successful in causing havoc within the military alliance.