NATO: Factor of Instability and Insecurity

On April 4, 2024, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization marks its 75th anniversary. Some great fanfare is to be expected leading up to the “celebratory” NATO summit in Washington DC in July. But is there anything that could be credibly presented as NATO’s achievement over all these years?

When North Atlantic Treaty was signed in 1949, it was Lord Hastings, Lionel Ismay, NATO’s first Secretary General, who coined the phrase: the Alliance was created to keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down. In other words, NATO in its origin was designed to support the divisive idea of confrontation – this has been its raison d'etre, inbuilt algorithm, without which it becomes obsolete. For a time in the 1990s it would seem that things would go this logical way, leading to NATO’s dissolution, like the Warsaw pact before. Lord Ismay was long gone, the Soviet Union was no more and new Russia proposed radical change in the East-West relationship in favor of a new security architecture based on mutual cooperation and trust. But no, that was rejected – NATO did not lose its value for the US political elite, for whom it has always been an instrument of their domination. Lord Ismay’s formula quickly transformed into “Alliance is there to keep the Americans in and Europeans down”.

Attempts by NATO to “reinvent” itself after the Cold War have been disastrous – bombing of Yugoslavia, war in Afghanistan, “humanitarian intervention” in Libya, war in Iraq – all leading to wholesale destruction and millions of lives lost. Probably the biggest strategic failure was NATO’s idea of eastward expansion, which has been the key reason for the crisis of European security. Russia has not expanded anywhere, it was the Alliance that was moving its military potential and infrastructure time after time towards Russian borders, increasing military spending beyond even Cold War levels, crossing all imaginable red lines and, finally, provoking current conflict in Ukraine. That is hardly a record to be proud of. On the contrary, NATO has repeatedly proven that its mere existence is a hugely destabilizing factor not only in Europe, but globally.

For now, the Russia-NATO relations seem to be beyond repair. It was not Russia that ruined them, and it is not up to us to propose the way for a reconstruction. Nevertheless, we would be ready for constructive dialogue, with reasonable and responsible leaders of Western countries on how to build a sustainable system of European and global security. It cannot be done without Russia. The basis for such an endeavor should be the principle of equal and indivisible security, equality and mutual respect of interests.