NATO vs Russia: 75-year standoff

Home / Explore / Peace & Conflict

The war in Ukraine has reinvigorated NATO as a bulwark against Russian aggression. But has NATO been a force for peace, or for military escalation? Historian Timothy Sayle, director of the International Relations program at the University of Toronto, digs into the alliance's seventy-five-year history and explores its role in the world today. This podcast is based on Sayle's talk at a special event for Canada's History donors and supporters at the National Club in Toronto.

Read the transcript

Your history. Your inbox.

With 7 uniquely curated newsletters to choose from, we have something for everyone.

More from Stories Behind the History

Mi'kmaw Myths & Canadian Lore

What uncanny creatures lurk in the depths of the Canadian wilderness? Gather ’round the campfire for some spine-tingling stories of the supernatural.

Vancouver: Hippie City, Heroin City

From Vancouver’s nineteenth-century opium dens, to the 1970s hashish trade through Montreal’s French Connection, drug use and abuse has created subcultures with their own personalities and rituals.

Canada in the Korean War

A stress point in current global tensions, the border on the 38th Parallel is a seventy-year-old legacy of the Korean War. Seventy years after the 1953 armistice, Canadian War Museum historian Andrew Burtch and Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre discuss Canada’s involvement on the Korean Peninsula, from wartime to the present day.

How Prince Edward Island Joined Canada

More than 200 years ago, the British monarchy promised the Mi'kmaw people the right to hunt and fish on the island forever. But what happened to those treaties when PEI joined Canada in 1873?

Quest for the Northwest Passage

Best-selling historical author Ken McGoogan discusses the bold and gruesome search for the Northwest Passage with Kate Jaimet, senior editor of Canada's History magazine.

The Canada-India Connection

Many of the same British aristocrats wielded power in both India and Canada. A podcast with international relations scholar Madhuparna Gupta, historical non-fiction author Stephen Bown and senior editor Kate Jaimet.Winner of the 2023 Canadian Ethnic Media Award for Podcast Feature.

Timothy Sayles is Associate Professor of history at the University of Toronto and the author of Enduring Alliance: A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order. He spoke at a Canada's History Society event at Toronto's National Club, where this podcast was recorded.