NATO: Past and Present of the Most Dangerous Organisation on Earth

Recording of event from 24th of June 2025 with Vijay Prashad.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) claims that it is facing the greatest existential crisis in its nearly eighty-year history. As the Trump administration – on the surface – turned its back on Europe, the region’s leaders scramble to raise funds for the war in Ukraine and their own military buildup. Yet, there has been no concrete indication that the United States will either withdraw from that military instrument or seek to disband it.

NATO serves a wide range of purposes for the USA and its allies and has done so since it was founded in 1949. Bloody wars have consolidated the supremacy of the West: from Europe to Africa and Asia. Despite the rhetoric, Trump is following the ambit of the US elite’s overall approach: namely to maintain global power through instruments such as NATO and a pliant European state system. NATO will remain an instrument of Global North power regardless of the surface bumps that are inevitable in the period ahead. This is confirmed by NATO’s decision earlier this month to launch its largest arms buildup since 1990.

Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, will be present in person to present and discuss parts of the recently by the tricontinental published dossier: “NATO: The Most Dangerous Organization on Earth”. After taking a look at the history of NATO and its subjugation of the global South, we will talk about current developments, the NATO summit and NATO’s main mission: NATO’s China Challenge.