By 1945, Britain was no longer a top tier world power and its leaders saw the need to create alliances for military support, which led to the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, more commonly known as NATO. This book traces the development of this alliance, analysing US and British attitudes towards defence, security and the nature of the partnership across the North Atlantic.

As well as examining the development of NATO, Olmstead explores failed attempts at creating a European military alliance, such as the European Defence Committee, and in doing so establishes the political context in which NATO was formed from. In particular, he analyses the attitudes of leaders such as Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower in the development of this relationship, and how much the Anglo-American alliance affected the development of the organization. Using extensive archival sources, Olmstead demonstrates that from Churchill's point of view, this was an opportunity to manage this relationship, whereas Eisenhower saw it as an opportunity towards providing Europe with political and psychological self-confidence and economic health. This timely work provides a deep understanding of an organization which is still influential on the world stage in the modern day.