World News: NATO Loses Influence Over US-Iran War
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Thursday, 09 April 2026 11:50
- Written by Olivier Longhi
The US-Iran conflict and its diplomatic consequences highlight the loss of influence of NATO, an organisation that is supposed to guarantee the security of its members in the event of aggression by one of them.
Initially a military tool, NATO has become an alliance considered obsolete on the other side of the Atlantic. While the war unleashed by the United States, jointly with Israel, against the Islamic Republic of Iran can be condemned in all its forms, it is more difficult to dispute President Trump's remarks when he questions the relevance of maintaining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
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If the man is accustomed to sensational media outings, the reflection carried out by the American administration on the future of the Atlantic Alliance deserves to be analyzed.
Historically, NATO was born in 1949, in the middle of the Cold War, the United States fearing that Western Europe would be invaded by the forces of the Soviet Union, making Europe a huge bloc where people's democracies would succeed each other.
Therefore, Article 5 of the Treaty specifies that any NATO member attacked by a third country would be immediately seconded and assisted by the members of the Alliance in order to ensure its defence. In 1949, the question took on its full meaning and even seemed to flow from an obvious fact that La Palisse would not have disputed.
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Containment and the Cold War
In concrete terms, the United States took charge of the defense of potential countries attacked by the Soviet Union or its allies to contain the communist advance in the world. In the end, NATO then became the armed wing of the Truman Doctrine, that of containment which aimed to limit the spread of the proletarian and communist revolution in the world.
However, by protecting its allies, the United States protected itself in a logic of reciprocity that turned more to its advantage than to that of the other members. But more than seventy years later, the Cold War is over, and the United States is no longer inclined to want to get involved in the defense of NATO members.
The financial cost, the isolationist doctrine and the updated Monroe Doctrine have pushed the Trump administration (but not only the Trump administration because as soon as Barack Obama was elected in 2008 Barack Obama had raised the question of a disengagement of the United States in the defence of European interests within the framework of the Alliance) to review Uncle Sam's involvement in the Treaty.
Because it is now a given: the United States no longer wants to defend the Europeans and act, on the contrary, through punctual and targeted operations, like the negotiations in Ukraine.
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Empty Shell and Polarized Diplomacy
The shifting geopolitics opened up with the Trump era tends to transform NATO's role to the point of simply depriving it of it. Some would even think that it looks more like an empty shell than a military alliance capable of impressing any enemy.
The undulating diplomacy conducted by Donald Trump against Vladimir Putin, the hysterical war waged in the Middle East or the protracted negotiations in Ukraine testify to Donald Trump's contempt for the Alliance that President Emmanuel Macron had deemed to be brain dead. Thus, beyond the possible disappearance of a vestige of the Cold War, we must see in the gradual abandonment of the Alliance, the end of a diplomacy polarized around multilateralism, which Donald Trump does not like, and the return of case-by-case conflict settlements, far from all the considered and thoughtful negotiations that the tenant of the White House abhors. After NATO, the organisation that could be in the breach is the UN....
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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.
