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

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Jul 1, 2025

Elina Xenophontos, an international law and economic globalization expert, sheds light on NATO's imperialist roots. She discusses NATO's role in maintaining U.S. dominance, highlighting its interventions in Greece, Libya, and Ukraine. Elina challenges listeners to recognize NATO's impact on global capitalism and emphasizes its suppression of socialist movements. The conversation dives deep into Gaddafi's legacy and the repercussions of NATO's actions in Libya, encouraging a critical understanding of geopolitics and imperialism's enduring effects on world affairs.

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INSIGHT

NATO as Imperialism's Military Arm

NATO functions as the military arm of imperialism, aligning with ruling classes and authoritarian regimes.
Its role is to suppress socialist and revolutionary movements threatening capitalist dominance worldwide.

INSIGHT

NATO Origins and Purpose

NATO was created to contain Soviet expansion and suppress rising socialist movements in post-WWII Europe.
The alliance served imperialist interests by aligning with brutal regimes to preserve capitalist control.

INSIGHT

NATO's Support for Authoritarian Regimes

NATO supported brutal monarchies and fascist regimes in Greece and Europe to crush communist and leftist movements.
This alliance ensured Western control and exploitation through suppressing organic revolutionary forces.

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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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