North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Although peace was achieved in Europe in
1945' the Soviet Union seemed to pose a threat to the new order, as a result of which Western Europe and North America created NATO in 1949 to guard against Soviet attack. NATO succeeded in its aim of pr0tecting the Western alliances, and also helped underpin democracy and capitalism. Its success was vividly illustrated in 2004 when seven Eastern European countries-including Bulgaria, Romania-all joined NATO. But since the diplomatic fallout in 2002-2003 between the United States and some of its key European allies over the invasion of Iraq, a question mark has hung over the future of the organization.