NATO’s problems with its identity are the result of the West having lost its dynamism of civilisational expansion. After the Cold War the geopolitical subjectivity of Western Europe towards the United States was undermined within the Atlantic community. The US became a hegemon and it is to its geostrategic interests that NATO’s functions were subordinated. Presently NATO members face the need to redefine the organisation’s strategies and functions in the contemporary world. They must choose whether NATO is to constitute an intervention instrument in the global ideological struggle (in the name of ‘total democracy’) or fulfil the regional (transatlantic) defence functions for which it was established. Understanding the axiological diversity and accepting the diversity of political systems is the prerequisite for developing a certain modus vivendi with the countries that constitute a source of challenge and threats towards NATO. Presently, the stability of the international order depends especially on establishing peaceful relations with Russia.