Unholy Alliance popularly refers to a situation when two seeming political antagonists (which could be parties and/or people) temporarily join together in order to fight a common political enemy. When the common enemy has been "defeated" (depending on the context: either in war and/or in elections), the unholy alliance will usually break and the two former allies will pick up the fight where they left it.
For example: the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany could be considered a historical unholy alliance between two antagonist totalitarian powers, with both historically striving for world supremacy in the long-term, while allying themselves with each other to ensure their short-term survival.
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In 1855, the term Unholy Alliance was used for Western European alliances with the Ottoman Empire against the interests of Russia, Greece, and most of the Balkans.[1]
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt notably used it to refer to the "invisible Government" of the United States.[2] Referring to major party politics in the U.S., this use was geopolitical with respect to the economic reach of the Trusts and monopolies (sugar interests, Standard Oil, etc.) and the U.S. foreign policies supporting them.
The term came to be used by Pan-Africanist, left-wing, and Third World authors referring to collaboration in Africa of Apartheid South Africa, New State Portugal and Ian Smith's Rhodesia with other Western powers during the Cold War.
The Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in its Fourteenth Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 27 February to 6 March 1970, stated they were "Deeply concerned at the strengthening of the unholy alliance among the racist regimes of Pretoria, Salisbury, Lisbon and their collaboration with other imperialist powers..." U.S. and British supplies of arms and other support to South Africa, Rhodesia, and Portuguese overseas provinces, principally Angola and Mozambique, during the Cold War are implied here.[3] In its resolution 3151 G (XXVIII) of 14 December 1973, the UN General Assembly condemned, what it called, the unholy alliance between South African racism and zionism.[4]
This use of "unholy alliance" to refer to any group of two or more countries standing in opposition to the African liberation movement became fairly routine.[5][6][7] The Non-Aligned Movement most notably, officially included this designation in one of its declarations and several leftist African leaders implied that Israel was a sort of quiet partner as well. This Entente (diplomatic understanding) was especially visible during the Biafran War.[8]