Cold War alliances
Superpower bloc memberships
Cold War alliances were the opposing military and political blocs that divided much of the world from roughly 1947 to 1991.
NATO aligned Western democracies under American leadership; the Warsaw Pact bound Eastern European states to the Soviet Union.
These alliances defined global politics for decades, turning regional conflicts into proxy wars between superpowers: Cold War alliances made even small nations strategically significant.
- Brezhnev DoctrineSoviet right to intervene
- Marshall PlanPostwar American economic assistance
- socialismCommunal economic control
- satellite statesNations controlled by another
- Eastern BlocUSSR-aligned European nations
Western Bloc · Five Eyes · Truman Doctrine · Bretton Woods system · Article 5 · nuclear umbrella · mutual assured destruction · Iron Curtain · border · wall · Comintern · red scare · nationalism · World War II · non-aligned · Pentagon · pact · ideological
Cold War alliancesNon-Aligned Movement
Neutral nations' diplomatic group
neutral nations · nonalignment · Swiss neutrality · neutrality · Bandung Conference
Cold War alliancesWarsaw Pact
Soviet-led military alliance
NATO · SEATO · communist bloc · Free World