Do we still need NATO? In Poland, Hungary or the three Baltic republics, nobody would ask. On the contrary, the former members of the Warsaw Pact, who joined the Alliance after the end of the East-West conflict, appreciate being part of the most successful alliance in history. Like the two of Germany until the turn of 1989, Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians now feel like front-line states in a new kind of system confrontation, some of which are already compared to the Cold War. God knows no pleasant feeling.
The peace-loving and well-to-do Western Europeans, who have been benefiting from the US nuclear umbrella for 70 years and have been surrounded by friends for 30 years, can no longer easily understand this feeling. Perhaps that’s why we are struggling to bring our defense spending closer to the two-percent target we’ve agreed upon, as the predecessor of the current US president had already complained. At any rate, Donald Trump’s completely exaggerated tirades against NATO should not serve as an excuse for the Federal Government to take the issue of „fair burden-sharing“ lightly.
Anyone who thinks that NATO has served their time should look at the map: from the perspective of a Warsaw, a Bucharest or a Sofioten, the world looks a bit different. The five-year smoldering hybrid war in eastern Ukraine, which has already claimed several thousand casualties, and the blatant annexation of Crimea in spring 2014 have dramatically demonstrated to the young democracies on the eastern edge of the EU how fast it is with national self-determination and territorial integrity.
A question of perspective
But not only a reoccurring Russia under President Vladimir Putin, but also a fast-paced China, which is in the process of shifting the balance of power in his favor and politely but firmly refuses to talk with the other two major nuclear powers on arms control may like serve as a reminder. In addition to such giants, it is good for the little ones, they are not alone, but have strong allies, which give a potential attacker to understand in an emergency: So far and not further!
This pledge, the capacity for credible collective deterrence and defense, is enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. It is and will remain the centerpiece and secret of NATO’s success, founded under very different circumstances. Despite numerous crises, the Alliance has proven to be amazingly tough and adaptable. The fact that the cause of existence of the Alliance in its 70th year is most vehemently called into question by the incumbent US President is, of course, a serious problem for all those involved. For all our security, NATO is indispensable for the foreseeable future. The unquestionably sensible efforts of the Europeans can not change that, and in the future they will be more concerned with this very security.
