What is the military alliance among 16 democratic states in Western Europe and North America?

• A. SEATO
• B. CENTO
• C. NATO
• D. Warsaw Pact

Answer: (C)

The idea being tested is recognition of the major security alliance linking Western Europe and North America. NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was created in 1949 to provide collective defense and deter aggression during the early Cold War. Its core purpose is that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all, binding democracies across the Atlantic to come to each other’s aid. It started with twelve founding members and, during the 1950s, expanded to sixteen with the addition of Greece, Turkey, and West Germany, reflecting how security interests can broaden an alliance over time. The other items are different regional security groupings: SEATO focused on Southeast Asia, CENTO on the Middle East and Central Asia, and the Warsaw Pact was a Soviet-led alliance of Eastern Bloc states, not Western democracies.