Full story
NATO decisions by consensus
NATO’s governing rule, described in Al-Jazeera Net’s explainer, is that there is “no majority vote, and no decision without the consensus of all,” with consultations continuing until a form acceptable to all is reached.
“Concurrently with the NATO summit held in Ankara, questions return about who shapes the Alliance's policies, how its decisions are made, and what prevents passing a position opposed by a member state”
The same account says the Secretary General “cannot impose” decisions on member states, because “the final word rests with the states represented in the Council.”
It adds that the North Atlantic Council is NATO’s main political decision-making body, including representatives from all member states and meeting at levels ranging from permanent ambassadors to foreign and defense ministers or heads of state and government.
In that framework, the article says member states define priorities through documents approved by their leaders, including the 2022 Strategic Concept’s three main tasks: deterrence and defense, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security.
It also states that when NATO intervenes militarily, it does so under the collective defense clause in the Washington Treaty or by a UN mandate, and “requires a collective decision by the members.”
Finland’s consensus and NATO
In an interview published by Conflits, Juhana Aunesluoma describes Finland’s strategic culture as resting on “trois piliers indissociables” and says Finland has not dismantled its military capabilities after the Cold War, instead modernizing them in the 1990s.
Aunesluoma links that approach to Finland’s “autosuffisance nationale” and to a stable political consensus, and he says the recent decision to join NATO was approved by “194 parlementaires sur 200.”
He frames NATO membership as not weakening Finland’s conviction of self-sufficiency, describing it as “une assurance supplémentaire, non comme un substitut à la défense nationale.”
The interview also says the inheritance of conscription remains important, with “six à douze mois” of service for many people and a stable popularity of conscription over time.
Aunesluoma adds that this creates an environment where acceptance of the army is strong because people can identify with it, while the consensus culture is illustrated by the narrow margin of opposition in the NATO vote.
Funding, spending, and Europe
NATO’s funding is described in a NATO-focused explainer as coming from direct contributions and indirect contributions from member countries, with direct contributions totaling about “€4.6 billion in 2025” and potentially reaching “€5.3 billion in 2026.”
“Groenlandia, Meloni stempera: decisioni in ambito Nato, evitare divisioni”
That same text says NATO’s highest political decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, decides by consensus to commit to an operation or mission, and it notes that no obligation is placed on member countries to contribute unless it is a collective defense operation under Article 5.
The explainer also states that at the The Hague Summit in 2025, Allies pledged that by 2035 they would raise to “5%” the share of gross domestic product dedicated each year to financing needs related to defense, and that they will allocate “at least 3.5% of GDP” annually to defense as such and to achieving NATO’s capability objectives.
It further says that in 2014 at the Wales Summit, Allies committed to devote at least “20%” of their defense expenditures to the acquisition of major equipment, including related research and development.
Finally, the NATO text says the Alliance remains dependent on the United States for certain essential capabilities, listing “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, air-to-air refueling, ballistic missile defense, or electromagnetic warfare aircraft.”
