The atrocities committed by NATO and its member states against humanity over the past seven decades have no parallel in history. Today, there exists only one organization that poses a universal threat to human dignity worldwide—it is also imperialism’s primary weapon. Without understanding NATO’s crimes, no meaningful anti-imperialist movement can be built.
NATO was formed in 1949. The United States, Canada and ten European nations were its founder members. Today however, it is not something confined to just the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. The latest dossier from the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, titled NATO: The Most Dangerous Organization on Earth, explains how NATO, the world’s sole military alliance, became the greatest obstacle to global welfare.
NATO was the product of the U.S. project to establish global dominance. Its formation was based on the UN law that allows creation of regional security groups with approval from the UN Security Council. The condition is that without the UN Security Council’s approval, it cannot cross any nation’s borders. But NATO threw all international laws to the wind. No restrictions applied to them. It became an instrument for establishing U.S. supremacy over the world through various means.
After World War II, U.S. used NATO to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union. But US’s goal was not limited to that alone. Controlling Germany’s power after World War II was also part of it. Keeping the Soviet Union out of Europe, securing U.S. influence in Europe, and keeping Germany down – that is, the Soviet Union out, America in, Germany down – this was how NATO’s first leader Lord Ismay described the alliance’s objectives in 1952.
By the end of World War II, U.S. already held half of the world’s total wealth. Yet, it accounted for merely six percent of the global population. They knew this inequality would fuel discontent across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. To overcome this and maintain their dominance, they devised a strategy: creating military alliances in the Global South.
Thus, to bind Latin America to U.S. interests, the Rio Treaty (1947) and the Organization of American States (OAS, 1948) were established. Soon after NATO’s formation, security pacts were crafted to secure control over West Asia and Central Asia. The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO, 1954) and the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO, 1955) followed as extensions of this strategy.
After World War II, containing the Soviet Union’s growing power became America’s primary objective. Alone, they couldn’t achieve this. All these alliances became America’s weapons in the fight against communism. These pacts helped America influence foreign governments and establish military bases near enemy nations including the Soviet Union, China and Vietnam.
By the 1960s-80s, these treaties became less essential for US. By then, America had already established significant global military presence. From Japan to Honduras, they maintained military bases. They had developed advanced weapons systems including missiles and submarines. Through joint military exercises and arms trade, they established firm control over allied forces. Consequently, they dissolved SEATO in 1977 and CENTO in 1979. Only NATO and OAS remained.
Even after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, NATO wasn’t dissolved. Instead, U.S. assigned it new dimensions and objectives. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright redefined, in 1997, NATO’s purpose as confronting “multidirectional challenges.” Albright argued preventing nuclear proliferation was NATO’s new mission, claiming these threats primarily emerged from West Asia and North Africa, requiring NATO’s global intervention.
Albright’s statement perfectly captures post-Soviet NATO’s operations. To justify its existence, it constantly needs to present new “threats” to the world. First it was the Soviet Union, then terrorism (al-Qaeda), and now China and Russia. Keeping Russia weak while establishing control over Eastern Europe, punishing nations opposing U.S. dominance and neoliberal globalization, and continuously manufacturing new “enemies” to validate NATO’s existence – this, in essence, has become NATO’s enduring mission.
The weapons industry feared such a downturn and found ways to prevent it—chief among them was NATO’s expansion. Arms dealers lobbied the U.S. Congress, leading to the 1996 NATO Enlargement Facilitation Act. In just two years (1996–98), America’s top six military contractors—Boeing, Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Textron—spent $50 million on lobbying. The scale of their intended arms trade becomes clear when we see that between 2015–19 and 2020–24, European weapons purchases doubled, with 64% coming from the U.S. New NATO members like Poland and Hungary were forced to buy from these corporations. The Soviet “threat” was gone, but the arms trade boomed.
Before the Soviet Union dissolved, the U.S. promised not to expand NATO beyond Germany’s eastern border—a condition tied to German reunification. Yet, this assurance was broken faster than the Berlin Wall fell. By bombing Yugoslavia in 1999, NATO sent a clear message to Eastern Europe: “You’re either with U.S. or against us.” The alliance then absorbed: In 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO; in 2004, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia; in 2009, Albania and Croatia; in 2009, Montenegro; and in 2020, North Macedonia joined NATO.
Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and Latvia, which share a border with Russia, became part of NATO by the middle of the first decade of the 2000s. Even though the communist leadership was gone, the United States was wary of Russia’s rise as a world power. That is why NATO expanded to encircle Russia. That is also the reason why Russia did not agree to Ukraine and Georgia, which share a long border with Russia, becoming part of NATO. They were certain that it would be a pretext for war against them. The United States is intervening in Ukraine with the same goal. This is the core of the current Russia-Ukraine conflict. NATO is creating a war environment under the pretext of preserving peace and is becoming an army for the plunder of wealth.
The introduction to the book NATO: A Reckoning with the Atlantic Alliance by Sevim Dagdelen exposes three myths about NATO. One of them is that NATO is only a defensive alliance and that it operates in accordance with international law. In the founding convention of 1949, NATO members agreed that they would consider an armed attack against one or more of their countries as an attack against them all. But the extremely destructive wars that the United States has waged using NATO in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya show that their goal is not defense, but to establish total domination. The brutal war that NATO members, the United States and the United Kingdom, waged on Iraq was also covered by fabricated lies.
Another myth is that NATO is committed to protecting the rule of law and democracy. The reality is that many NATO members are stained with the blood of terrible colonialism and occupation. Even after NATO was formed, they have committed numerous atrocities that violate all human rights. Portugal joined NATO when it was under a fascist dictatorship. NATO gave full support to their colonial war in Africa. The world is familiar with the experiences of the United States in overthrowing democracy, including its collaboration with dictator Pinochet to overthrow the elected Allende government in Chile. After the military coup in 1980, millions of people were subjected to horrific torture, trials, and murder in Turkey. This did not prevent Turkey from remaining a member of NATO and receiving military assistance from member states. The gross violations of human rights after the military coup in Greece in 1967 did not harm their NATO membership. The United States, using its spy agency, the CIA, planned coups around the world and destabilized many governments that did not submit to it. It is clear that NATO’s role in history is not of protecting democracy, but of strengthening the slaughter of democracy.
Another myth is that one of NATO’s goals is to protect values and human rights. Although it is not a member of NATO, Israel is described as their major non-NATO ally. The genocide and total destruction that the terrorist state Israel is carrying out in Palestine could not have been carried out in this way without the support and military assistance of the main NATO members, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The shocking truths of the war crimes committed by NATO countries were exposed to the world by WikiLeaks founder Julius Assange, along with evidence. The Guantanamo prison, which the United States illegally operates on Cuban soil, is the most notorious prison in the world. NATO is also responsible for the human rights violations that take place there. There is no other answer to the question of what is the biggest threat to human rights in the world other than NATO.
Thirty-two countries are full members of NATO today. Thirty of them are in Europe and two are in North America. Yet its entire operation is in accordance with U.S. will. Keeping Europe under its leadership, strengthening its dominance to exploit the resources of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and eliminating emerging alternative powers – all this is what U.S. achieves through NATO. Therefore, one of the main agendas of the fight against imperialism in the world is to defeat NATO. The most dangerous organization in the world. g
Author is a Researcher at Tricontinental institute for Social research, & All India Vice President SFI.