Slowly, NATO is positioning itself as a substitute for the UN, suggesting that it and not the actual international community is the arbiter and guardian of the worlds interests, security, and values.

 Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. by VJ Prashad, 20 July 23

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) held its annual summit on 1112 July in Vilnius, Lithuania. The communiqu released after the first days proceedings claimed that NATO is a defensive alliance, a statement that encapsulates why many struggle to grasp its true essence. A look at the latest military spending figures shows, to the contrary, that NATO countries, and countries closely allied to NATO, account for nearly three-quarters of the total annual global expenditure on weapons.

untries closely allied to NATO, account for nearly three-quarters of the total annual global expenditure on weapons. Many of these countries possess state-of-the-art weapons systems, which are qualitatively more destructive than those held by the militaries of most non-NATO countries. Over the past quarter century, NATO has used its military might to destroy several states, such as Afghanistan (2001) and Libya (2011), shattering societies with the raw muscle of its aggressive alliance, and end the status of Yugoslavia (1999) as a unified state. It is difficult, given this record, to sustain the view that NATO is a defensive alliance.

. NATOs increasing membership has doubled down on its ambition to use its military power, through Article 5, to subdue anyone who challenges the Atlantic Alliance.

The Atlantic Alliance, a phrase that is part of NATOs name, was part of a wider network of military treaties secured by the US against the USSR and, after October 1949, against the Peoples Republic of China.

This network included the Manila Pact of September 1954, which created the Southeast Asian Treaty Organisation (SEATO), and the Baghdad Pact of February 1955, which created the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO). Turkey and Pakistan signed a military agreement in April 1954 which brought them together in an alliance against the USSR and anchored this network through NATOs southernmost member (Turkey) and SEATOs westernmost member (Pakistan). The US signed a military deal with eac...