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Introduction:
In December 2019, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will be marking seventy years of existence with a Summit of Allied leaders in London. US President Donald Trump is set to be in attendance alongside the leaders of the other twenty-eight nations which make up the Western military alliance.
Established at the onset of the Cold War, NATO was instrumental in nuclear brinkmanship. Although not officially involved in any wars during its first forty years of operation, NATO helped to foster a climate in which nuclear war was possible, and in the thirty years since the end of the Cold War and the downfall of the Soviet Union NATO has been marked by expansionist aggression.
Since 1999, NATO has added 13 new member states, all in Central and Eastern Europe and as of 2019 officially recognises four more aspiring members in that region, including Ukraine. This, despite Western assurances at the end of the Cold War that there would be no eastwards expansion of NATO. NATO claims these additions are designed to deter Russian aggression but many question whether this expansionism threatens to provoke a new Cold War.
Meanwhile, NATO is approaching twenty years of disastrous occupation in Afghanistan and the wounds inflicted by its onslaught on Libya continue to widen. There is also continued speculation over expansion into Latin America.
In many circles the existence of NATO and Britain’s membership of the alliance are unquestionable. This briefing is designed to raise questions as to whether this aggressive military alliance is still fit for purpose in the 21st century and why, after multiple military failures from Afghanistan to Libya, it remains unchallenged in foreign policy circles. NATO is by design a powerful arm of US foreign policy, and in the hands of the reckless Donald Trump we must step up our campaigning against it. The 2019 summit in London is a crucial opportunity for the anti-war movement to oppose NATO’s nuclear warmongering and interventionist agenda.