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Western Bloc

The Western Bloc is an informal, collective term for countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. While the NATO member states, in Western Europe and Northern America, were pivotal to the bloc, it included many other countries, in the broader Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa with histories of anti-Soviet, anti-communist and, in some cases anti-socialist, ideologies and policies. As such, the bloc was opposed to the political systems and foreign policies of communist countries, which were centered on the Soviet Union, other members of the Warsaw Pact, and usually the People's Republic of China. The name "Western Bloc" emerged in response to and as the antithesis of its communist counterpart, the Eastern Bloc. Throughout the Cold War, the governments and the Western media were more inclined to refer to themselves as the "Free World" or the "First World", whereas the Eastern Bloc was often referred to as the "Communist World" or less commonly the "Second World".

Not to be confused with Western world or Western blot.

 

Australia

 

Canada

 

New Zealand

 

United Kingdom

 

United States

 

United States

 

India

 

Australia

 

Japan

Matloff, Maurice. Makers of Modern Strategy. Ed. Peter Paret. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971. 702.

Kissinger, Henry. Diplomacy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. 447,454.

Lewkowicz, Nicolas. New York and London: Anthem Press, 2018.

The United States, the Soviet Union and the Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War