NATO Pt. 1: An Anti-Imperialist Introduction w/ Elina Xenophontos

Upstream

Politics, Society & Culture, News

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2025

⏱️ 93 minutes

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Summary

NATO—The North Atlantic Treaty Organization—far from being just a defensive alliance between the United States and Europe, is actually the spear tip of imperialism’s military arm. It’s the force used to discipline any global actor who dares to defy US hegemony and dominance on the world stage. From Greece to Libya to Ukraine—NATO is where we must look to understand how destabilization occurs and how defiant states across the globe are subjugated and opened up to Western markets and capital. And we’re lucky enough to have a terrific guest on today to tell us all about how it all takes place.

Elina Xenophontos is an international law and economic globalisation specialist. She produces much of her own material on her Substack and is also featured regularly on the Colonial Outcasts podcast.

In this episode, Part 1 of what will be an ongoing series on NATO, Elina presents a history of NATO, exploring its role as a force against communism and for capitalist discipline in Europe and the Global South and laying the foundations for what will be deeper dives in coming episodes. We explore its expansion during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods as a military arm of imperialism, its role in Yugoslavia, Libya, Ukraine, Iran, and other wars or conflicts, its drive to destabilize any state that refuses to be subjugated under the boot of US imperialism, and why it’s crucial for the Western left to correctly identify NATO’s role in global capitalism and imperialism in order to effectively combat it.

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Intermission music: "Love Life" by Daily Ghost

Covert art: Soviet anti-NATO propaganda poster

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We can see here the way in which NATO has operated over the years.
0:25.6	It functions as the muscle, the military arm, essentially, of imperialism.
0:31.6	Because what it does is that it tends to align itself with the bourgeois class.
0:36.6	You know, it will be in the form of monarchs, dictators,
0:39.8	far-right fascist regimes, so long as they prevent the spread of communism and suppress actual
0:46.6	political, organic, revolutionary movements in countries.
0:50.7	And then they establish within those countries alliances with the ruling class of those countries
0:55.4	in order to essentially have that sort of US hegemonic control, this imperialist control over these states
1:03.9	and allowing them to essentially be at a persistent state of exploitation at any particular time.
1:09.5	You're listening to Upstream. Upstream. Upstream. Upstream.
1:14.9	A show about political economy and society that invites you to unlearn everything you thought you knew
1:20.9	about the world around you. I'm Robert Raymond. And I'm Della Duncan. NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
1:30.3	Far from being just a defensive alliance between the United States and Europe
1:35.3	is actually the spear tip of imperialism's military wing.
1:40.3	It's the force used to discipline any global actor who dares to defy U.S. hegemony and dominance
1:47.0	on the world stage.
1:49.0	From Greece to Libya to Ukraine, NATO is where we must look to understand how destabilization
1:56.0	occurs and how defiant states across the globe are subjugated and opened up to Western
2:03.5	markets and Western capital.
2:06.5	And we're lucky enough to have a terrific guest on today to tell us about how this all works.
2:13.9	Alina Xenofantos is an international law and economic globalization specialist.
2:19.8	She produces much of her own material on her substack and is also featured regularly on the
	...

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