NATO after the Cold War

Abstract

The origins of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) lie in the alliance formed between England, France, the United States of America, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Canada against the backdrop of the shared cultural, religious and civilisational heritage shared by the European continent and America. Subsequently, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Spain joined the founding treaty, and the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to the end of the Second World War. During the Cold War between the Western bloc, led by the United States, and the Eastern bloc, led by the former Soviet Union, NATO negotiations took place and the Treaty of the North Atlantic was signed in March 1949, coming into force in August 1949. This was followed by the Paris Agreement of 1954 and the London Act of 1954, which formed the legal basis of the alliance. The main objective of the alliance during the Cold War was to resist and contain the spread of communism throughout the world, particularly in Europe. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, Western nations, led by the United States of America, sought to capitalise on this new situation arising from the collapse of communism and the socialist bloc to impose their hegemony over the new world order, directing its mechanisms and shaping its operations to serve their colonial interests and achieve dominance. There is no doubt that the end of the Cold War affected the Alliance’s functions and its military, political and economic objectives, thereby necessitating the formulation of a new strategy suited to the new developments that had arisen on the international stage.