Military alliance

A **military alliance** is an alliance that is made with the express purpose of military matters and promises the defense of all of its members.

## Historic military alliances 
*Medic Wars
**Hellenic League - Athens, Lacedemonia, Macedon, others
*Peloponnesian War
**League of Delos - Athens, Chios, Samos, Lesbos, others
**Peloponnesian League - Lacedemonia, Corinth, Elis, others
*Wars of Scottish Independence
**Auld Alliance - Scotland, Norway, France
*Italian Wars
**League of Cambrai - The Papal States, France, Aragon, Holy Roman Empire
**Catholic League (Italian) - The Papal States, Venice, England, Aragon, Holy Roman Empire
*Schmalkaldic War
**Schmalkaldic League - German Protestant States
*Anglo-Portuguese Alliance -  England (succeeded by the United Kingdom) and Portugal, since 1373
* Luso-Islamic War
**Ethio-Portuguese Treaties - Portugal, Ethiopia
* Thirty Years' War
** Catholic League (German) - Bavaria, other Catholic German States
** Protestant Union - Protestant German States
*War of the Grand Alliance (Nine Years War)
**League of Augsburg - The Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Austria, other German states
*War of the Spanish Succession
**The Quadruple Alliance of 1718
*Napoleonic Wars
** The Quadruple Alliance of 1814/15 
** First through Seventh Coalitions
*The Quadruple Alliance of 1834
*Anglo-Japanese Alliance - United Kingdom and Japan
* World War I
**the Entente and the Allies - United Kingdom, France, Serbia, New Zealand, Australia, Russia (to 1917), Romania (from 1916), United States (from 1917)
**the Central Powers - German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria
* World War II
**the Axis - Nazi Germany, Empire of Japan, Fascist Italy, and many others.
**the Allies - United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, Free France, United States, Soviet Union, Republic of China, many others.
* Cold War
** Western European Union (WEU) - currently in process of merging into CFSP and ESDP (see below)
** North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) -- United States, Canada, most of Western Europe (*still an active alliance*)
** Warsaw Pact - Soviet Union,  East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania
** Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) - United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia, Burma, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines
** Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO) - United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan
** ANZUS - United States, Australia, New Zealand (*still an active alliance*)
** Five Powers Pact - Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom (*still an active alliance*)

## Current military alliances and economic assistance  
* North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) - United States, United Kingdom, Canada, most of Western Europe and Central Europe, parts of Eastern Europe, and Turkey.
* Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) - Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
* Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) of the European Union.
* Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) - United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore.
* ANZUS Treaty (ANZUS) - United States, Australia, New Zealand.
* ECOMOG of Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group.
* Council for Peace and Security in Central Africa (COPAX) of Economic Community of Central African States.
* Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Pact) - Most of the countries of the Americas.
* North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) - United States and Canada. NORAD and other defense agreements (such as the Permanent Joint Board on Defense) form the most extensive defense alliance in the world.
* Regional Security System (RSS) - several Eastern Caribbean countries.
* Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), political, economic and military organisation - China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan.
*Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) - economic and military assistance.

## References