EN
The paper presents the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the development and maintenance of the international security system, using examples of selected armed conflicts (Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya). The author portrays NATO as the only guarantor of European and world security, showing that NATO is the only organization in the contemporary changing and dynamic world that is capable of keeping the peace and the status quo that was obtained with so much difficulty by the international community after World War II. The contemporary international situation, in particular the change of the external policy conducted by the Russian Federation, the great migration crisis, and the activity of the socalled Islamic State casts NATO in a completely different and, above all, new role, which this organization is bound to fulfil, constituting a reliable foundation of global peace. It seems that NATO is currently the only organization that is capable of shouldering full responsibility for ensuring security in Europe and the world.