ABSTRACT
The Middle East was excluded from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) territorial domain for several reasons. First, because of the geographical distance of most of the Middle Eastern countries from the core of NATO, which is the North Atlantic, not the Mediterranean. Second, because of the strong unwillingness of the British and French governments to encourage an active US role in the Middle East. When de Gaulle led France out of the military organization of NATO, the press mistakenly reported that he had abandoned NATO. The high point of the NATO alliance occurred in April 1949, when the United States had an absolute hegemony in Western Europe and the USSR had an absolute hegemony in Eastern Europe. As a multilateral alliance, NATO is really a set of dyadic alliances, some of which are more important than others.
