#readwise # Crisis in Ukraine How Russia Has Revived NATO  ## Metadata - Author: [[economist.com]] - Full Title: Crisis in Ukraine How Russia Has Revived NATO - URL: https://www.economist.com/international/2022/02/12/how-russia-has-revived-nato ## Highlights - **“France is a NATO member, but Paris is not the leader there. A very different country runs this bloc,” said Dmitry Peskov, Mr Putin’s spokesman. “So what deals can we talk about?” In sum, the only interlocutor that matters is America.** - A peculiarity of the crisis is that, even though no one in NATO thinks Ukraine is fit to join the alliance soon, if ever, the body cannot be seen to close its “open-door” policy in the face of Russian threats. Some European diplomats think the circle could be squared if Ukraine itself were to declare its neutrality, as Austria and Finland did after the second world war. Asked about “Finlandisation”, Mr Macron let slip that it was “one model on the table”, but insisted that creative negotiators would have to “invent something new”. Russian diplomats have said they might entertain the idea. - **Two years ago Mr Macron had announced the “brain death” of NATO due to a double malady: under Donald Trump America was no longer willing to guarantee Europe’s security; and some members, such as Turkey, were acting unilaterally in Europe’s “neighbourhood” without consulting their allies.** Since then, however, NATO has revived admirably. Under President Joe Biden America sounded the alarm about Russia’s build-up and co-ordinated the Western response. **“Putin has single-handedly given NATO a vitamin injection,” says Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference**, an annual transatlantic talkfest that begins on February 18th. **NATO’s three decades of angst about its role after the end of the cold war has been dispelled.** Having performed “out of area” operations in the Balkans and counter-insurgency in Afghanistan, it is going back to basics: the territorial defence of allies. The theological rivalry between institutions in Brussels over whether the EU should have an autonomous defence capability has for the moment been stilled. - “The European Union cannot defend Europe,” says Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general, noting that “80% of NATO’s defence expenditure comes from non-EU members”. NATO’s military heft derives mainly from American muscle. But it is more than that, Mr Stoltenberg says. Britain, Iceland and Norway, which are not in the EU, are vital to securing Europe’s northern flank, along with Canada. Similarly, despite tensions with its NATO allies, Turkey supports Ukraine and anchors the alliance in the south-east. In return, NATO helps give America an unrivalled network of friends and allies. Europe and North America, Mr Stoltenberg says, must stand in “strategic solidarity”. - **“Do we have a Plan B for what the EU will do if NATO were to lose its main partner?” asks Mr Ischinger. “I hope it will never happen but it’s a matter of serious responsibility to consider it.”** Without the American hegemon, though, it is still hard to envisage the Europeans mustering a coherent response. Foreign- and security-policy decisions in the EU require unanimity. Different countries’ priorities diverge. Southerners want to focus on the Mediterranean and migration; easterners put Russia first. Moreover, political and strategic instincts differ, too. France favours wielding military power but is wary of a NATO dominated by America; Germany embraces the alliance but for historical reasons is shy of using force. And Britain has left the EU entirely. “It is the European dilemma,” says a German diplomat. “European sovereignty is impossible. But it has never been more necessary.”