An international alliance is a formal agreement between two or more mostly sovereign states to cooperate in specific areas. These areas can include military alliances like NATO, political unions such as the European Union and even resource alliances that share access to natural resources. These partnerships can have positive effects on the member states but they also may encourage devolutionary movements within those countries as regional communities seek greater self-determination.
The creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 marked a new approach to alliances. The Allies had previously built up a series of interlocking defense commitments but not a centralized command structure to coordinate their actions. The outbreak of the Korean War, feared to be a precursor to Soviet aggression on Europe’s periphery, changed that. The Allies moved to create a unified headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, or SHAPE, with US General Dwight Eisenhower at its head. NATO’s role soon expanded to incorporate crisis management on Europe’s troubled periphery, including the 1995 air campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina that ushered in a peace process that led to the country’s first democratic elections in 1995.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, NATO developed a diverse coalition that brought together old Allies and new partners to fight international terrorism. The Alliance has since established an Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, a forum for promoting political and economic stability with six non-member Mediterranean partners: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. In addition, NATO has engaged with six non-member partners in the Western Balkans, extending cooperation beyond the Alliance’s traditional geographical boundaries.