The Importance of NATO for U.S. Interests


After the end of World War II, relations between the western Allies and Russia quickly became hostile. Russia was a powerful communist nation while much of western Europe was still rebuilding from the Second World War. In order to counter the Soviet threat, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949. This organization allowed the smaller countries of western Europe to band together in case there was a Soviet invasion of Europe. Although it was established at the beginning of the Cold War, it is still important in U.S. foreign policy.
One of the reasons why it is still important today is that Russia is still a threat. Russia has always been looking for weaknesses in western Europe by looking to invade the much smaller, weaker countries closer to its borders. We have seen Russia’s aggression relatively recently with the annexation of the Crimea region of the Ukraine. Had NATO not been around, Ukraine might now be part of Russia. NATO is the only thing that is keeping Russian in check today. The Cold War might be over, but Russia is still a threat.
The last reason why NATO is still important is that it is used to maintain peace and security in general among member nations. One of the ways that it protects its allies is that one of the agreements is that if another outside country attacks a member country, then all other members will come to that country’s defense. The alliance prevents wars between member nations in Europe and encourages the countries to work together to maintain peace. Since its creation, there has not been a major war in Europe.
Overall, NATO is still very important to U.S. despite that it was originally made for dealing specifically with Russia and the spread of communism. Russia continues to be a threat U.S. interests both domestically and abroad and NATO is really the only thing protecting many U.S. allies in Europe from a Russian invasion. The security of the member countries is still the primary goal of NATO and the U.S. can use these countries’ support to support current and future U.S. interests.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

U.S Foreign Policy towards Middle East

After World War II, the overriding concern of American foreign policy was finding a new way to check Soviet expansion and influence throughout the world. The Middle East, specifically, was a vulnerable target for the U.S. and Soviet Union after British and French colonialism. That said, US foreign policy towards the Middle East was not completely linear during the past century. Instead, it can be divided into two periods — during the Cold War and after the Cold War. During the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy was mostly a reaction to Soviet strength, position, and action. [1] After the Cold War, the Middle East — being considered as part of the Third World, was to be “exploited” for the needs of the industrial societies and to “fulfill its major function as a source of raw materials and a market.”[2] In other words, peace and oil have been the main focus of US foreign policy in the Middle East after the Cold War.  During the Cold War, the Soviet goal was to achieve strategic pari...
Read more

Memorandum on US policy on the Paris Agreement

TO: President Donald Trump FROM: Matt Fitzgerald DATE: April 29, 2018 SUBJECT: Memorandum on US policy on the Paris Agreement Introduction Climate change has been increasingly affecting Earth ever since the industrial revolution. Earth has been becoming warmer every month. Sea levels have been rising, and coastlines have been disappearing. Something needs to be done so that the effects of climate change do not become permanent. There have been many failed global attempts to decrease our carbon emissions, and many countries including the three largest polluters, the U.S., China, and India are reluctant to do so. Only one attempt looks promising to help start the trend towards using green energy. The Paris Accords might not be perfect, but it is a good start to the world using green energy. Option 1 Pulling out of the Accords will be a reckless long-term decision. The U.S. needs to be the leader of the free world. The U.S. is the largest polluter in terms of population. W...
Read more

Memorandum on United States Foreign Policy Regarding North Korea

Memorandum Memorandum on United States Foreign Policy Regarding North Korea To: President Donald Trump CC: Professor Shirk From: Foreign Policy Analyst, Victoria Hassan Subject: The North Korean Nuclear Arsenal Dilemma Issue: If not already, North Korea is very close to achieving nuclear armed international ballistic missile capability that is capable of reaching the United States and other regions of North America. Even to experts, North Korea’s motive and intentions for building up a nuclear arsenal have been quite unclear and unpredictable. Recently, there has been much debate as to whether or not the United States should take military action regarding North Korea’s reluctance to denuclearize the entire Korean Peninsula. However, U.S. military action and complete U.S.  inaction are not the only options for dealing with North Korea. Option 1: Trump-Kim Summit Peaceful Negotiations Avoiding military action and possibly the use of nuclear weapons agai...
Read more