.nato is a former Internet top-level domain. The nato TLD was added in the late 1980s by the NIC for the use of NATO, who felt that none of the then existing TLDs adequately reflected their status as an international organization. Soon after this addition, however, the NIC created the int TLD for the use of international organizations, and convinced NATO to use nato.int instead. However, the nato TLD, although no longer used, was not deleted until July 1996.
