The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, is a military and security organization that has expanded its mission outside Europe in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, especially Afghanistan and Iraq. The purpose of the presence of these forces was to enter Iraq in 2003 to assist forces in Afghanistan and after the overthrow of the Iraqi government in 2004. The present study tries to compare NATO’s performance in two important countries in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, taking into account the Persian Gulf. The purpose of this study is the performance of NATO and the consequences of its performance in these two countries.
The present study is based on Conceptual content analysis method and first-hand studies of sources and reports by organizations and texts related to the thesis, interviews with experts and comparing the results of the study with the background. The findings of the study show that the existential philosophy of NATO was to create a security belt around Western democracies and encircle the superpower of communism and its satellites. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, the existential philosophy of this organization is questioned. Went. But in practice, NATO not only did not disappear, but it continued to exist, and from the geographical and development goals of the September 11 attack, it was a turning point in NATO's security and defense approach to send troops and the first extraterritorial peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and Iraq for the first time. But to achieve these goals, NATO faced challenges in Afghanistan and Iraq. Part of these challenges were related to the inherent characteristics of the two countries' societies, while others came from NATO itself. In addition, the presence of NATO in Afghanistan and Iraq has had implications for these two countries, NATO members and neighboring countries. As a result, we can say that NATO has played a political and security role during its presence in Afghanista