NATO's expansionist policies-Enrolling New Members

NATO was said to be formed to protect democratic nations from the Soviet Union. NATO’s founding treaty “commits the Allies to democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law, as well as to peaceful resolution of disputes. Importantly, the treaty sets out the idea of collective defense, meaning that an attack against one Ally is considered an attack against all Allies.” Unlike the European Union, this is a strong military commitment where the member states have to go to war in case of any aggression by outside countries towards an individual member. According to the NATO website. NATO protects weaker members from being singled out against Russia and any other security threat.

After NATO’s inception, the Soviet Union also formed a military alliance for collective security called the Warsaw pact with Eastern Europe countries Albania. Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. After world war II when Germany was divided into East Germany and West Germany, West Germany was a part of NATO and East Germany became part of the Warsaw Pact. After Germany was Unified the Warsaw pact and the Soviet Union were Dissolved and unified Germany became a part of NATO, negotiation happened between western countries and Soviet Leaders on whether Germany should be a part of NATO or not. Then Soviet leader   Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to Unified Germany being a part of NATO but they did not discuss anything about NATO’s further expansion into Eastern Europe according to the transcript of the meeting released later. But Russia claims that Gorbachev received assurance that NATO would not further expand into Eastern Europe.

In 1999 after the Warsaw pact was dissolved and Soviet troops were withdrawn from countries, three farmer Warsaw pact countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland admitted into NATO. This resulted in massive outrage and humiliation in Russia. Ten years after this  Gorbachev complained that the West had tricked Moscow and that they(west) promised 'We will not move 1 centimetre further east,' he quoted. Later he said that this issue was never bought up between them. This issue was never had any written agreement. Russia says that NATO betrayed its promise of not expanding into eastern Europe. The time of all these events after the Soviet Union fell is a singular time in history when countries experienced a Unipolar world order for some time, and the post-cold war actions of NATO have been unravelling ever since.

Clinton administration believed that the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe is a good decision, they thought it would help NATO if it comes into conflict with Russia in the future. They also believed that it will offer eastern Europe countries security, democracy, and free-market policies. The latest joining member of NATO was the Republic of North Macedonia, currently, three more countries declared their aspiration to get NATO membership, those countries are Ukraine, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. NATO has an open-door policy for any European country which can satisfy the commitments and obligations of membership and contribute to the security in the Euro-Atlantic area. In 2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined NATO, this comes after George W.Bush invades Iraq without any resolution from the UN, he needed legitimacy and a coalition for the Invasion, all the countries joined the NATO in 2004 except for Slovenia sent their troops to Iraq, and later the membership of NATO was given to these countries.

According to the results of a study published by NATO in 1995, the countries should fulfil the following requirements to be accepted into NATO.

·        a functioning democratic political system based on a market economy;

·        the fair treatment of minority populations;

·        a commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflicts;

·        the ability and willingness to make a military contribution to NATO operations; and

·        a commitment to democratic civil-military relations and institutional structures.

The Partnership for Peace (PfP):

“The Partnership for Peace (PfP) is a programme of practical bilateral cooperation between individual Euro-Atlantic partner countries and NATO. It allows partners to build up an individual relationship with NATO, choosing their priorities for cooperation.”[1] NATO says that the purpose of this partnership is to increase stability, diminish threats to peace and build strengthened security relationships between non-member countries and NATO in the Euro-Atlantic area. The activities under this partnership touch on every field virtually but mostly concentrated on the military field of a country. Some countries deepened their cooperation with NATO by choosing to develop Individual Partnership Action Plans (IPAPs).

With the expansion, NATO got to sell military equipment, establish intelligence ties and create forward bases, all of these are strategically positive results but once NATO came looking into Ukraine and Georgia it became negative. It is hard to not talk about Ukraine and Georgia while speaking about NATOs expansionist policies, especially in Eastern Europe, even though they have an open-door policy the entire world is watching the moves of the west and Russia when it comes to these two countries as it created insecurities in Russia which resulted in the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. .the main demand of Russia to put an end to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is an assurance from west to that Ukraine will never be a part of NATO. The last time Ukraine had foreign troops presence on its land was during world war II which resulted in millions dead and homeless in Russia, so Russia;’s concerns over the foreign military presence right outside its home are reasonable and cannot be dismissed outright.

Not only Ukraine Georgia also faced a similar situation in 2008 with Russia due to its interest in joining NATO. In 2008 Georgia and Ukraine expressed their aspirations to be part of NATO and the then Deputy foreign minister of Russia said that it is a huge strategic mistake and it will result in serious consequences for pan European security. Which happened as predicted. States like Georgia and Ukraine becoming members of NATO is a direct threat to Russia according to President Putin. The 2008 aspirations to join NATO resulted in direct war between Russia and Ukraine, Georgia. Russia didn’t have any aspirations to conquer Ukraine or occupy it in 2014, and they don’t have any similar aspirations now, Russia is in the process of wrecking Ukraine, that’s what Russia did in 2014. Russia wants to west to go back to the status quo where they stay out of Ukraine.

In 1997 fifty former senators, ambassadors and US arms control and foreign policy specialists called the expansionist policy of NATO a policy error of historical importance. It also mentioned that this policy would undercut the people who favoured reforms and cooperation with the west from Russia. The US security guarantee to NATO countries will be in a complicated position when NATO recruits countries with serious border issues with its neighbour's national minority problems and underdeveloped governance system domestically. but currently, the expansion has been done beyond any possible retreat, but NATO can still manage to maintain peace in the region with Russia avoiding new NATO military deployments that are provocative and unwarranted.

The NATO expansionist policy is decreasing the sense of security of the countries which are not included in the alliances, NATO is not the sole contributor to the deterioration of the US-Russia relations but it did play a significant role in it. whenever NATO became active it has nothing to do with article 5 of the charter which promises support for a member under attack, but it mostly worked on new missions on an ad hoc basis suiting the interests of the different players in the alliance at different times, with different rationals. It's not clear what is the main goal of the alliance at this time. But from a realist perspective, NATO unnecessarily militarized the region which is a provocative measure toward Russia. Even though many agreements and commitments are made and speeches have been given, when a strong situation arises every country will act in its interest more than the collective interest and the commitment to NATO won't have any more effect on member countries than the UN resolutions had.

Notes

[1] NATO at https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_50349.htm#:~:text=The%20Partnership%20for%20Peace%20(PfP,their%20own%20priorities%20for%20cooperation. 

Pic Courtsey-Marius Serban at unsplash.com

(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)