NATO Expansion Map (1949-2004)

NATO - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- was founded in 1949 as a US-directed military alliance to counter the might of the Soviet Union and its satellite states in central and eastern Europe. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 199, NATO's original reason for being no longer existed. Many people understandably expected that NATO would be dismantled. Instead, Washington moved to expand it. In the years since the end of the USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall, twelve new countries have been added. This map shows how NATO was expanded eastwards to include countries that had been part of the Soviet Union itself. This expansion helps to explain why many Russians regard the US as the real threat to stability.