The Perennial Alliance? / 75 Years of NATO

Even the critics of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) readily admit that without it, the world would have been a very different place over the last three quarters of a century."If we did not have NATO, we would have to invent it and build it," General Jim Mattis, soon to be appointed Secretary of Defence in the first Trump administration, told the sceptical president-elect in 2016. 1 Despite predictions of irrelevance, replacement, or even imminent demise, 2 the transatlantic alliance has weathered through many crises during and after the Cold War.Having surpassed in longevity the Delian League led by ancient Athens 1