NATO... Sans Pax Americana?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed as an American-led coalition of the Western Bloc during the Cold War in the latter half of the 20th Century.

The goal of NATO was to contain the spread of Communism and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

In 1991, with the dissolution of the USSR, the purpose of NATO was fulfilled, in theory. However, this coalition persisted as an arm of American military power throughout the 1990s into the present day.

NATO has only recently been called into question by Donald Trump.

In the 21st Century, the integrity of the NATO coalition was first challenged by the Russian Federation with the special military operation (SMO) going into Ukraine in 2022. Although not officially a NATO member, Ukraine had been under consideration for membership, and the regional war was effectively a NATO-Russia proxy war in a much longer conflict.

While the NATO coalition slowed the advance of the SMO from achieving the goal of neutralizing the NATO-backed government in Kiev — installed with the 2014 Euro Maiden Coup — it was apparent that a swift and decisive victory was not going to be clear cut for either side in Ukraine.

This was a turning point for global geopolitics, as the moment of unchecked unipolar hegemony was over for the American Empire.

In 2026 and 2024, the elections of Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America have marked a significant break with the bi-partisan “Cold War Consensus” in the American Congress around the strategy of the American Empire seeking to be everywhere all at once, a stance sometimes referred to as “Globo Cop.”

In the interim years, the Biden Administration had attempted to revert back to the previous paradigm of championing a “rules based international order,” that which had conceived NATO during the Cold War, but the failures in Ukraine could not be ignored. This also coincided with the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in 2021.

Under the second Trump Administration, with their financial backers recognizing the challenges to unipolar hegemony of the American Empire from the emerging multipolar world, such as Russia and China, they have refocused their efforts towards a more regional position centered around dominance of the American hemisphere, known as the Monroe Doctrine.

Trump’s pivot in foreign policy away from the Neo-Conservative position of being “Globo Cop” to the Paleo-Conservative position of Monroe Doctrine was erroneously referred to by some as him being an “anti-imperialist.”

Make no mistake, this is still an imperialist strategy, but in a hemispheric context which was the previous geopolitical orientation of the American Empire in the 19th and early 20th Century before the World Wars.

In 1823, the Monroe Doctrine was declared as an “anti-imperialist” measure to “protect” the peoples of the Americas against the European monarchies, however, in practice, it was the blueprint for projecting a new imperialism over the American hemisphere in the guise of “liberty.”

For example, following the Spanish-American War (1898), the remaining colonies of the Spanish Crown in the Caribbean and the Pacific — such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines — without the consent of the governed were brought under control of the American Empire.

This new return to Monroe Doctrine now comes in conflict with other NATO members in the European Union, such as the row over Greenland which is formally under the control of the Danish Crown.

A similar logic could be applied to the British Dominion of Canada being a constitutional monarchy. However, both countries have effectively operated as vassal states of the American Empire for foreign policy under NATO.

Those who still believe in the strength of NATO have cited Article 5 — the core defense initiative where if one member state is attacked all others will come to its defense — over Trump’s interest in the annexation of Greenland.

However, it is unlikely that any of the NATO members from the EU would come to the aid of the NATO members in North America if their lands were annexed by the American Empire, as the commander-in-chief of NATO.

We must understand that being a part of an American-led NATO is a nonsensible answer when the problem at large is the American Empire.

NATO was a product of the Cold War which the American Empire used to enforce its military might — Pax Americana — via a trans-Atlantic network of ideologically-aligned subordinate states, primarily in the “Collective West.”

With the consolidation of the American Empire in the American hemisphere, the new return to Monroe Doctrine, a withdrawal from seeking to enforce unipolar hegemony, and acknowledging the emerging multipolar world, NATO feels even more outdated than it did in 1991.

Despite the American Empire abandoning their interests in some theatres, others have since escalated, especially here in the Americas, with the recent moves against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and the potential plans to annex more countries in the Americas, including Greenland and Canada.

As Canadians we need to form new international alliances that make sense in the current year. We too must make our own connections with fellow states in the American hemisphere and other great powers to check the power of the American Empire.

If NATO was meant to uphold Pax Americana in the Cold War, how can it now be used as a bulwark against America?