NATO seems to be struggling with its existential raison d'etre, after the alliance lost its original enemy, the Soviet Union, and has yet to find a new role to fulfill.
Some say the United States wants to portray Russia as a new enemy to generate fear among Europeans, but according to the poll it looks like most Europeans aren't buying that nonsense, the Philadelphia Trumpet reported.
The survey asked: "If Russia got into a serious military conflict with one of its neighboring countries that is our NATO ally, do you think our country should or should not use military force to defend that country?"
Despite NATO's Article V, which establishes the idea of collective defense as the first and foremost concern of the alliance, only in two out of the eight surveyed countries the majority of citizens said their countries should use military force to defend their allies (only Americans and Canadians said they were ready to go to war if their NATO allies were attacked).
The poll results were "devastating," according to Judy Dempsey, editor-in-chief of Strategic Europe at Carnegie Europe.
"The longer the Europeans refuse to even consider the use of military force to protect their allies, the more NATO's sense of collective defense and solidarity will weaken. The inexorable outcome is the demise of Article V. What the is NATO for?" — Dempsey said, as quoted by the Philadelphia Trumpet.
So there, the idea of United Europe quickly goes out of the window. At the end of the day, every nation stands only for itself and the Hobbessian concept of the state of nature prevails.
While Europeans are scratching their heads over whether they will defend each other if Russia got into a serious military conflict with one if their NATO allies, Russia repeatedly stated that it has never had any interest in attacking its neighbors.
