Nato @ 75

The transatlantic alliance seeks a global role

As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), the world’s largest peacetime military alliance, turns 75 today (April 4), it faces challenges within and beyond its transatlantic borders. The alliance, formed as a security bulwark by 12 countries — the US, Canada, and 10 western European countries — against Soviet expansionism (embodied in the Warsaw Pact), has found growing post-Cold War relevance against the neo-imperialist aims of post-Soviet Russia under Vladimir Putin. Today, Nato has 32 members, and it is no coincidence that the major enlargements occurred in 2004, four years after Mr Putin began his first term. In that year,