generalspeaking

NATO's Proud Resurgence

"Putin believes that NATO is a great threat to Russia and its ambitions and has publicly mourned the downfall of the Soviet Union as the greatest tragedy of the 20th century."
"No one knows better than he does the military and diplomatic solidarity that bound NATO together from its founding in 1949 to the end of the Cold War, during which it achieved its objective of containing Soviet Russia."
"During that period of 40-plus years, no European territory fell under Soviet influence because the United States' nuclear umbrella and Article V of the NATO treaty [an attack against one is an attack against all] simply posed unacceptable risks to any Soviet leader who may have been tempted to slice off Western Europe a piece at a time."
David J. Bercuson, fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute, director, Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary

NATO went into paroxysms of despair at the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States. President Trump's unalloyed suspicion and mild contempt for NATO was expressed during his run for the presidency when he questioned its usefulness and damned its members' propensity to lean on the United States as their major shield against any threatening moves by the Russian Federation's Vladimir V. Putin. For, as matters turned out, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, causing Western world powers to visibly relax, did not equate with the end of the threat of Russia to world peace.

Eastern European countries, quick to declare their independence from Russia, quailed at the very thought of Russia reasserting itself and forcing on them a new satellite system. It took awhile for Russia to recover from the shock of its neighbours shaking themselves loose from their 'coalition' where all were equal, but Russia much, much more equal in its power, entitlements and acquisition of the Union's member-states' resources. Russia's swift economic decline and its demoralization post sundering rendered it temporarily quiescent.

Vladimir Putin has changed all that in a renascent Federation and his own very personal mourning of the passing of power and prestige of the USSR, both of which he speedily set about reasserting; his nostalgia impelling a new confidence in Russia's entitlements of which several provinces in Georgia and then the reclaiming of Ukraine's east along with the Crimean earning him pride and prestige in Russia and vibrant condemnation in the rest of the world. Since then, Russia's re-entry to the Middle East and collaboration and support of Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad, and accommodation with Turkey and Iran have given Russia added confidence.

"The world has not forgotten the cynical lies Russia employed to justify its aggression and mask its attempted annexation of Ukrainian territory. [The United States denounces] the worsening repression by Russia's occupation regime in Crimea."
"The United States calls on Russia to release all of the Ukrainians, including members of the Crimean Tatar community, it has imprisoned in retaliation for their peaceful dissent."
"The United States will maintain respective sanctions against Russia until the Russian government returns control of Crimea to Ukraine and fully implements the Minsk agreements."
"Crimea is Ukraine and must be returned to Ukraine’s control.During the past five years, Russian occupation authorities have engaged in an array of abuses in a campaign to eliminate all opposition to its control over Crimea."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

NATO, it seems, is not in trouble, as it appeared when its purpose for existence was challenged by the collapse of the USSR. The very man who is invested in bestowing unto the Russian Federation some of the power and prestige elements of the Soviet Union, through his implied threats and his fulminations against the West interfering in Russia's business, furious that former allies have chosen to distance themselves in their eagerness to join the European Union and NATO, has ensured that NATO members have reacted by firming up their allegiance.

NATO's divisions are nowhere near as visible now as they were, for example during the Obama presidency. With the ascension of a president with whom most NATO members feel they have little in common, they have instead of disintegrating the union, re-integrated it into a power structure close to what it once exemplified in its challenge to the Soviet Union. Where not too long ago NATO members cut defence spending leaving the United States to shoulder the burden of financing NATO, most are now reversing that course.

Which didn't stop Donald Trump from berating them in 2016 for failing to commit to a fair share, threatening to have his administration leave NATO unless things improved. But the real force behind NATO's resurgence is Vladimir Putin , his military interventions in Georgia and Ukraine to dissuade non-NATO countries from dependence on NATO. Turkey remains an outlier, with its decision to take on military weaponry of Russian design and manufacture, more than adequate reason to invite it to leave, alongside its increasingly tyrannical Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist resurgence.

NATO has committed its allies' troops to eastern Europe and Baltic countries in the prevention of Russian military aggression. France and Germany have suggested the creation of a "European Army", to add military power to NATO's Europe faction. It is a confused Europe, however, when one of its strongest members, Germany, remains dependent on Russia as an energy source. Add to that less physical military jostling about and an increase in cyber attacks, and much has changed, even while Russia clings to its modernized technologically advanced military assets.

All of which incline NATO and its members, all suspicious and fearful of President Putin's proclivity for the unexpected to form a closer bond in unified opposition to his expansionary plans.

Labels: Aggression, Europe, NATO, Russia, United States

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, February 28, 2019