The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO, was initially founded in 1949 by non-communist countries as a political alliance agreeing to defend against communist advances. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the organization evolved into more of a complete military organization with a central command. Thus, NATO grew to rival the Warsaw Pact and its post-communist successor, the Collective Security Treaty Organization. It also never took on the economic role of the European Union (EU) or North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The European Union has acheived supranational status because of the power afforded it by their member states, which supercede the powers of its individual states.  For example, the European Union has its own currency and mandates trade agreements. The other organizations listed do not have the same degree of power that is afforded to the European Union.

The Commonwealth of Independent States is comprised of some of the states of the former Soviet Union. This includes the Russian Federation, Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Armenia (as well as a few others). Most of the members of the CIS are part of an economic union and also members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization which is designed to provide for the cooperative defense of all members from external military attacks.

The North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1994 and involves the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It is a treaty designed to provide for the mutual economic prosperity of all three nations by eliminating restrictions to trade.

The United Nations was established in 1946, shortly after the end of the Second World War. The United Nations is tasked with preserving peace, deterring conflict, and promoting prosperity and equality in the world. It has a peacekeeping force comprised of forces from its various member states that is often sent to conflicts (particularly civil wars) around the world to try and restore order and peace.

There are fifteen members of the United Nations’ Security Council at any one time. The five permanent members are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia. There are ten other positions which are allocated regionally and rotated every two years.

The North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1994 between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The primary goal of the treaty was to eliminate barriers to trade between the three countries and provide mutual advantages designed to encourage growth.

The League of Nations was established in 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War, it was the first attempt at a global organization to prevent conflict and promote peace and prosperity. Obviously, it was ineffective at promoting peace because the Second World War broke out in 1939. The League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations in 1946.

The League of Nations was the brainchild of American President Woodrow Wilson. In the wake of the Second World War, Wilson published his Fourteen Points designed to preserve peace and order in the world. Part of the Fourteen Points was the proposal for a “League of Nations” that would act as an international arbiter in conflicts and that would enforce peace, prosperity, and freedom of the seas. Wilson gained a great deal of international support, but failed to win the support of his own Congress. Congress, in the United States, has to ratify all treaties signed by the American government. America at the time was decidedly isolationist in nature, and Congress refused to allow the United States to be a member of the League of Nations. As a result, the League continued without the most powerful nation in the world, just one of the many reasons it would prove ineffective during the interwar years.

The United Nations was created in the wake of the Second World War and the permanent members of the UN’s Security Council still reflect this time period. The United Kingdom, Russia (then the Soviet Union), France, the United States of America, and China were the victors in the Second World War, and they are the five permanent members of the Security Council. Japan, as one of the losers of the Second World War, is not a permanent member of the Security Council.