President Trump declared “unification” at the NATO summit in Ankara, a move that former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder confirmed has ended “fears of America leaving the alliance.” This renewed commitment solidifies the military bloc's role as a global enforcer for transnational capital.
Daalder appeared on Christiane Amanpour’s program on CNN, aired Thursday, July 9, 2026, alongside former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt. Their 17-minute, 26-second discussion centered on the alliance's strength and the persistence of internal divisions. The segment underscored the ongoing management of contradictions within the bloc, rather than any fundamental re-evaluation of its purpose.
Securing Global Capital
The “unification” declared at Ankara directly serves the interests of global capital, ensuring the continued projection of military and economic power. This power is essential for securing resources, opening markets, and maintaining compliant governments across the globe. NATO functions as a primary instrument for upholding an international order designed to concentrate wealth upward, systematically extracting surplus from the working classes worldwide.
Daalder's assertion that fears are “over” signifies a victory for the established mechanisms of capital accumulation. The alliance's operational capacity, backed by the collective military might of its member states, provides a framework for intervention and control. This framework protects accumulated wealth and corporate profits, influencing trade routes, resource access, and geopolitical alignments critical to the capitalist class.
The State's Imperial Role
National states, through their participation in military alliances like NATO, act as primary enforcers of capital's interests on an international scale. The Ankara summit's outcome reaffirms this role, demonstrating how governments align to preserve a system built on wealth extraction and global dominance. The high-level discussion between Daalder and Bildt, both former officials, underscores the continuous effort by state actors to manage and strengthen these instruments of imperial power.
Their analysis, broadcast on a major news network, frames the alliance's health as a matter of international stability. This framing deliberately obscures its underlying function as a guarantor of capitalist hegemony. The focus on “unification” reinforces a narrative that a strong NATO is inherently beneficial, without acknowledging the immense human and material costs borne by the working populations of member nations and the targeted regions.
Managing Contradictions, Preserving Power
The very public debate about “deeper divisions” within NATO reveals the inherent contradictions of an alliance composed of competing national capitals. Each national capital seeks to maximize its share of global surplus, leading to internal tensions. Despite these frictions, the ultimate goal remains the collective defense of the capitalist system against any perceived threat, whether from rival imperial powers or from organized challenges by the global working class.
Trump's declaration of “unification” signals a temporary resolution of these internal disagreements. This allows the alliance to continue its primary function of securing and expanding capital's reach. Such ongoing management of internal contradictions ensures the longevity of structures that prevent deeper, structural challenges to the existing economic order, effectively extending the life of a system that benefits the few at the expense of the many.