The forming and Role of NATO

The North Atlantic organisation treaty formed on the 4th April 1949 was essentially a defensive establishment put in place as a result of the tensions between the East and the West produced by the Cold War. This alliance signed by twelve western nations including Canada and most importantly the United States openly attacked the Soviet Union and its anti-democratic ideologies. The core concept of NATO was to defend Western Europe from the threat of communism and the parties agreed that “an attack against one shall be considered an attack against them all” committing each member state to armed resistance if necessary. In order to understand the motives for the formation of NATO it is imperative to determine the key events which heightened the tensions between the two major superpowers, creating a Bipolar world which lasted for nearly 40 years after the end of the Second World War.

During the Second World War Europe quickly found itself divided into two alliances, the Axis power...