formed in 1949 to provide security soviets, early role end of wwii rebuild marshal plan, the warsaw pact collective secuirty organisation, end of soviets q over role, embedding democracy and fighting nationalism strengths bound by freedom, deter russian aggression, changed w times, spends 70% of military very capable weaknesses q if states would actually help, differing interests, requires unanimity, over reliance on us so dominate, not all countries spend required 2% of gdp relation w russia 12 former eastern bloc countries joined us anti-ballistic missiles in former soviet bloc countries ukraine exacerbated conflict massively eg. missile in poland