NATO is an imperial alliance. Beyond the ostensible goal of containing the USSR, now Russia, NATO reinforces US interventions across the Middle East and North Africa. With the war against Serbia, NATO began wars violating the UN charter, followed by Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Eight NATO nations are at war in Syria. The Ukraine crisis, with potential nuclear dimensions, is rooted in NATO’s expansion. Violating the commitment not to move NATO closer to Moscow, President Clinton began the expansion to Russia’s borders and new “partnerships” with Ukraine, Georgia, Asia nations and the Global South. Given the history of invasions of Russia, Moscow’s militarized responses to NATO expansion were predictable. July’s NATO summit will be in Warsaw. It will build on President Obama’s commitment to quadruple spending for U.S. Eastern Europe war preparations. Activists from across Europe will demand peaceful alternatives in a counter-summit. Bahman Azad, professor of economics and sociology, serves on the Executive Board of the US Peace Council, active in Veterans For Peace and the International Campaign in Solidarity with the Iranian People’s Green Movement. Joseph Gerson is Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Peace & Economic Security Program. He serves on the steering committee of the No to NATO/No to War Network, the board of the International Peace Bureau and is Co-Convener of the Peace & Planet Network.

Chair/Facilitator: Jackie Cabasso View Bio

Speakers/Co-Facilitators: Bahman Azad View Bio, Joseph Gerson View Bio