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NATO isn't the only alliance that countries are eager to join – a brief history of the Five Eyes

Retrieved on: 
星期二, 七月 25, 2023

After the recent NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, it is anticipated that Sweden will soon become the alliance’s 32nd member.

Key Points: 
  • After the recent NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, it is anticipated that Sweden will soon become the alliance’s 32nd member.
  • Its most recent addition came in April 2023, when Finland became the 31st country to join.
  • At present, NATO currently recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring members.
  • But NATO isn’t the only alliance that countries across the globe are eager to join.

Origins

    • These messages ended up being a major source of intelligence throughout World War II, providing much-needed information about German troop numbers, military maneuvers and technological developments.
    • British mathematician Alan Turing is probably the most widely recognized person who worked to help crack the Enigma machine.
    • But in reality it was the collective effort of hundreds of men and women, including mathematicians, linguists and even chess champions.
    • Parallel to these developments, U.S. codebreakers were able to successfully crack diplomatic codes used by the Japanese.
    • In February 1941, an American military delegation was invited to visit the U.K. codebreaking operation, based on an estate called Bletchley Park.

Recent developments

    • Five Eyes attorneys general now regularly meet, as do finance members and defense ministers.
    • At the time, New Zealand was also hoping to conclude an upgraded free trade deal with China.
    • Since that time, New Zealand has continued to avoid taking as strong a position as the rest of the Five Eyes.
    • As a result, the U.S. has sought to circumvent New Zealand’s reluctance by formalizing other agreements without the Kiwis.
    • Both of those events undermine U.S. assurances to its allies that it can keep a secret.

Looking ahead

    • Currently, the most likely candidate is probably Japan.
    • At the end of 2016, Australia and the U.S. signed a trilateral agreement with Japan to deepen their covert security cooperation.
    • As of 2020, Japan’s minister of defense was enthusiastically in favor of joining the Five Eyes.