NATO: Beyond Law, Beyond Morality

The film traces the history of NATO since its creation in 1949, allegedly to “ensure the collective security of its member states.” However, from the very beginning, the bloc’s true purpose was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,” as the alliance’s first secretary general, Hastings Ismay, formulated its mission in Europe. In 1955, the USSR and its allies created the Warsaw Pact, which was capable of counterbalancing NATO, and a fragile peace was maintained in Europe for nearly half a century. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the counterbalance to NATO disappeared. The North Atlantic alliance carried out dozens of military operations in various parts of the world, steadily advancing towards Russia’s borders through the accession of new member states. Yugoslavia became the alliance’s first major “testing ground.” Under the guise of a “humanitarian operation,” the United States dropped thousands of bombs on homes, bridges, and factories. Middle Eastern countries – Syria, Libya, and Iraq – suffered wars that led to massive human casualties and widespread destruction. In the 1980s-90s, while Western leaders verbally assured Moscow that NATO would never expand eastward, in fact, the alliance’s borders have gradually drawn closer to Russia since 1999, as Eastern European states joined the bloc, one after the other. Today, NATO openly singles out Russia and Belarus as key potential targets in its military strategy. The deployment of troops and weapons in close proximity to Russia’s and Belarus’s borders is under discussion. The threat of nuclear war no longer seems abstract: NATO’s updated military doctrine includes the right of first strike.

Watch “NATO: Beyond Law, Beyond Morality” on RTD website and on RT’s live feed. The time of the broadcast is available on RT’s schedule page.