Editing Tripartite Pact (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Greater German Reich in 1942.png|thumb|275px|The main legacy in Europe: The German Reich (red), its occupied territories (brown), and Greater Italy (green) in 1942]]
As the defensive alliance under the pact was never invoked, and as the main signatories were widely separated between Europe and Asia limiting co-operation between the European and Asian signatories, the impact of the Pact was limited. The historian Paul W. Schroeder has described it as rapidly declining from a "position of importance in late 1940 to one of merely nominal existence in late 1941"{{sfn|Schroeder|1958|p=108}} and as "virtually inoperative" by December 1941.{{sfn|Schroeder|1958|p=154}}

Despite its limited practical impact, the Tripartite Pact had significant symbolic implications, particularly in influencing American perceptions. It persuaded the American public that Japan was acting in concert with Germany, which played into broader narratives of a coordinated Axis effort to dominate globally. On the other hand, the Pact persuaded the American people that Japan was acting in league with Germany.{{sfn|Schroeder|1958|p=100}} The charge that the Pact was part of an effort to co-ordinate aggression and achieve world domination also formed part of the case brought against the Nazi leaders at Nuremberg.{{sfn|Schroeder|1958|p=127}}

Similarly the [[Tokyo War Crimes Trials]] also focused on the establishing of mixed technical commissions between Germany, Japan, and Italy as evidence that the Pact began functioning shortly after it was signed, and showed mutual support in aggression under the pact, though these commissions never actually functioned.{{sfn|Schroeder|1958|p=221}}Moreover, the Pact's ideological underpinnings, rooted in global fascism and the aggressive ambitions for a new world order by its signatories, underscored the broader Axis strategy against the Allies.

It contributed to the legal and moral frameworks within which the Axis powers' actions were judged post-war, highlighting the complex legacy of wartime alliances not just in terms of their immediate strategic impacts, but also in terms of their longer-term effects on international relations and legal precedents for addressing acts of aggression.