ByIlan Berman
This week’s NATO summit in Washington is, by any measure, a grand affair, full of the pomp and ceremony befitting the bloc’s 75th anniversary. It also offers up a useful opportunity to reflect on the state of the most successful military alliance in history.
On the surface, the verdict is positive. Today, the Alliance appears to once again be on the march, thanks largely to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and the bloody war of aggression it has waged against Kyiv since, has breathed new life into a bloc that just a few years ago was being written off by its own leaders as “brain dead.”
Over the past two-and-a-half years, the practical necessities of protecting Ukraine have jump-started conversations across the European continent about a reinvigorated defense-industrial base. In response to the specter of further Russian aggression, the bloc has increased its operational tempo, interoperability and area of military operations. And it has expanded, adding two members (Sweden and Finland) that eschewed their traditional neutrality to seek the protection from Moscow’s imperial designs offered by collective defense. As a result, the NATO alliance is now more dynamic and robust than at any time in recent memory.
Dig a bit deeper, though, and some serious internal contradictions become visible.
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