Introduction
Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, emphasized at various times that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) "is a dangerous entity"[1] that only pursues its own interests and does not consider the interests of other nations, not even the allies in this [defense] pact.[2] In his own words, "One of the most catastrophic disasters for countries occurs when other countries interfere in their matters of security, plan their war and peace, and define their policies. It is a grave disaster for every country that is in such a situation."[3]
This article aims to probe the US goals in shaping the world order, the political system, and the structures arising from it, to study NATO's danger to the world, and from this point of view elucidate the Leader's statements on why Russia tried to regain the initiative in Ukraine and hinder NATO's expansionist policies.
NATO: From the Early Plans of Establishment to the Cold War
The origins of NATO can be traced back to secret negotiations between Churchill and Roosevelt. Just as the German war machine was challenging the British Empire and pushing the British order towards complete collapse, Churchill was faced with a hard choice between the preservation of their world empire or losing their hegemony over Europe. Under his prime ministership, Britain decided to hand over its world empire to its cousins in America, in order to focus on preventing German domination of Europe, especially Eastern Europe. Indeed, their nightmare was a union between the Soviet Union and Germany. Therefore, they went to their cousins on the other side of the Atlantic and this resulted in Roosevelt and Churchill meeting publicly and officially aboard the battleship "USS Augusta" in the north Atlantic and signing the "Atlantic Charter".
The Atlantic Charter was the starting point of the United States' entry into the great game of nations. In effect, Churchill brought a country into the great game of the 20th Century and World War II, which had no such history and it was like a teenager trying to prove that it was mature enough and had his own ambitions, and this is how the United States became the inheritor of the British colonial empire. In this way, the United States took over the post-war world order because of its superiority in World War II and its own ambition - which arose from the universalist[4] ideology of liberalism.
This nascent rising country was so ambitious, inexperienced, and novice that it did not even spare its allies, and right after the Second World War, while it was proud of the victory it had achieved in the war thanks to the help of the Soviet Union and Britain, it encountered challenges with one of its main allies, the Soviet Union.
After the capture of Berlin by the Soviet army in the Second World War, the Americans tried to dominate all global interactions based on this universalist ideology of liberalism and in order to prove to the Soviets that they were the superpower and that everyone ought to obey them, they dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. They took control of all the political-security-military, economic-financial-monetary, and cultural-scientific-social fields and structures of the world through forming institutions such as the United Nations and the Security Council, the World Bank, and The International Monetary Fund, UNESCO, and the Human Rights Commission.
This liberal universalism of the Americans, which was a continuation of the British universalism as the former driving force of a [imperial] liberal civilization, prompted the Americans to force the Western European countries and Canada to follow them based on “Atlanticism” or the belief in a close relationship between western Europe and the United States. Henceforth, the United States completely subjugated them in the Washington Treaty, which forms the basis of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO. In other words, the Americans developed and expanded the previous British hegemony with all their might.
NATO: From the Cold War to Today
The warmongering of the Germans in World War I and II, which could be a potential danger to the new Anglo-American order, caused the American occupation of Germany to be justified under the guise of NATO. As some Europeans used to say, NATO was formed and developed during the Cold War to keep Germany down and the Soviet Union out of Europe and to legitimize the US military presence in and occupation of Europe. This occupation continues through a huge network of American military bases stretching from the east to the west and from the north to south of Europe- eighty years after World War II.
Indeed, for the first time in the history of mankind, NATO has created a huge network of military, security, and intelligence systems with tens of thousands of weapons of mass destruction, which are a huge danger for the entire humanity in the present era and for future generations.
NATO's expansionism reached its peak after the Cold War and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, NATO tried to implement the United States' ambitious policies and help the expansion of American hegemony with the support of cultural institutions or a cultural NATO as well as economic institutions or an economic NATO by creating various crises, under the pretext of fighting communism. The Americans faced no competitor in the military field after the Cold War, and naturally given the purpose of NATO's formation which was to prevent Soviet influence, it ought to have ended NATO or severely reduced it, but instead, they expanded NATO under the pretext of fighting terrorism and various “crises”, waging wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and others.
The United States' Dangerous Goals of NATO Expansion
The United States of America, in the form of NATO, has the same dangerous goals as Britain had, namely to dominate the world, and this hegemony cannot be achieved except by dominating Eurasia and particularly West Asia. Therefore, in order to dominate these vital and very strategic regions, which are considered the “heartland” region, it constantly tries to create crises for the countries of the region in order to justify its presence and hegemony.
For this reason, the United States brought ten former communist countries into NATO from 1999 to 2004, and the number of NATO members increased to twenty-six countries. Later, Croatia, Albania, and Macedonia joined NATO, and then by creating a crisis and provoking Georgia through a conflict in South Ossetia and Ukraine through a conflict in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, they tried to make these two countries NATO members as well and gradually extend this military organization into the west and eventually east Asia. Dominating these regions is an important factor in preventing regional coalitions from taking shape by causing numerous crises to prevent stability, security, and sustainable development. This [reality] shows the menacing and dangerous goals of the US in the expansion of NATO.
Conclusion
Considering the history, actions, and dangerous goals of NATO, it is absolutely necessary that the regional powers of Eurasia take the initiative and stop more crises and greater influence of foreign countries and alliances in the region. The creation of a Eurasian [strategic] union (Iran, Russia, and China) is the big nightmare of the Americans and NATO, a strategic union which can thwart the dangerous goals of the Americans. Therefore, understanding this necessity and the strategic attitude towards this American project, the Supreme Leader has repeatedly emphasized the danger of NATO and praised any initiative against NATO's goals and actions in order to prevent the menacing goals of NATO, this military arm of American hegemony.
[1] Key points of meeting with the President of Russia. (2022, July 20). Khamenei.ir. https://english.khamenei.ir/news/9090/Key-points-of-meeting-with-the-President-of-Russia
[2] Leader’s Friday Prayer Address. (2012, February 3). Khamenei.ir. https://english.khamenei.ir/news/1583/Leader-s-Friday-Prayer-Address
[3] Region Needs Independent Armies Reliant on Their Own Nations. (2021, October 3). Khamenei.ir. https://english.khamenei.ir/news/8719/Region-needs-independent-armies-reliant-on-their-own-nations.
[4] The term “universalist” is here used in the sense of an exclusivist and all-encompassing outlook that does not tolerate any alternative world-views and claims to be the sole ideology capable of managing human affairs which requires its adherents to fight all those who do not submit to it.
