name: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
text: NATO is a alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty signed on 4th April, 1949.  The fundamental role of NATO is to "safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means."
  
  NATO provides a forum in which the United States, Canada and European countries can consult together on security issues of common concern and take joint action in addressing them.
  
  NATO's most important decision-making body is the North Atlantic Council which brings together representatives of the 26 Allies at the level of Ambassadors, Ministers or Heads of State and Government.
  
  NATO took command of ISAF in August 2003, and peacekeepers moved north in 2004 and west the following year, mainly in the guise of small country-directed Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs).  They moved into southern Afghanistan in substantial deployments during the summer of 2006.
  
  http://www.nato.int/