The Senate voted on Wednesday against an amendment that states that the United States cannot be drawn into a conflict through NATO’s Article 5 collective defense terms without the U.S. Congress first issuing a declaration of war.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that all NATO member nations, including the United States, are obligated to come to the defense of any single NATO member nation that is attacked. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced an amendment to this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which states, “It is the sense of Congress that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty does not supersede the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war before the United States engages in war.”
