NATO refrained from interfering into the Syrian crisis and hasn’t welcomed any new members, even though there were at least three hopefuls – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia. However, in the last twelve months NATO has been bursting with activity in Eastern Europe.
Following the regime change in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia, the alliance froze its cooperation with Moscow and boosted its military presence in the countries bordering Russia such as Poland and the Baltics. NATO justified these moves by citing the alleged threat that Russia poses to the aforementioned states. But there is more to it than just concerns about the security of bloc's members. NATO has often been criticized for lacking a mission in the post-Cold War reality, so in order to secure its defense budget, the leaders of the alliance constantly need an enemy they can scare taxpayers with, says Lindsey German, the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition.
“Look at NATO’s record over the past years, since the end of the Cold War, which was a situation where we were told that NATO didn’t really need to exist. Actually, the opposite has happened – NATO has expanded. It has been involved in all sorts of operations very-very far from its original supposed territory, including in the Balkans, including in Afghanistan, including in Libya. And I think that, if you look at NATO’s record in the recent years, it is a record of warmongering and being increasingly militaristic”.
In September, the leaders of the 28 NATO states redefined their military doctrine at a summit in Wales, which was seen as one of the most important events in the alliance’s 65-year history. With the Ukrainian crisis topping the agenda, bloc members agreed to widen collective security measures to defend their allies from the alleged Russian threat. NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe General Phillip Breedlove also declared that the bloc will be preparing partner nations with substantial Russian populations to counter “hybrid” or unattributed warfare. This basically meant invoking Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, covering collective defense, which requires member states to help a fellow member country if it becomes subject to an armed attack.
As part of this plan, the creation of the so-called Spearhead Force was announced. These rapid reaction military units from NATO member states will be composed of ground, air and naval units. In addition, the alliance has intensified its air patrols in the Baltic region, deployed surveillance planes over Poland and Romania and sent its warships to the Black and Mediterranean seas. The results of the Welsh summit have demonstrated that most NATO members have completely forgotten that the initial purpose of the bloc was to maintain peace, not wage wars, says Reiner Braun, the Executive Director of IALANA (International Association Of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms) and co-president of the International Peace Bureau.
“From my understanding, all the NATO countries are in favor of enlarging NATO to the east. All of them are talking about more troops and more bases in the East European countries. The question is only a technical one. The point is that NATO has not learnt any lesson from its politics in the last 20 years, which, for me, are the background of the crisis in Ukraine. They want to continue going to the east; they want to surround Russia. And I think for the peace movement this is not acceptable”.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have repeatedly called on NATO to stop its “creeping expansion” eastward as it threatens to disrupt the established world strategic balance. The response came when the newly appointed NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, arrived with an official visit to Poland, one of the member states that were especially persistent in stationing more NATO forces to ensure their safety from the alleged Russian aggression. In an interview with the local TV channel, Stoltenberg stated that the alliance can deploy its troops wherever it wants. Thus, a line has been drawn under the achievements in the post- Cold War cooperation between NATO and Russia.
