2 mins read
On Tuesday, Rutte took over as the civilian head of NATO from long-time Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “The first is to keep NATO strong and ensure our defenses remain effective and credible, against all threats,” he said. “My second priority is to step up our support for Ukraine and bring it ever closer to NATO, because there can be no lasting security in Europe without a strong, independent Ukraine.”
Leaders in the North Atlantic alliance have often presented the war as an existential issue for the bloc arguing that once Moscow is done in Ukraine, it will invade Poland or a Baltic State.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued for decades that Kiev’s membership in NATO presents a unique national security threat to Moscow. Additionally, the Kremlin has struggled to achieve its limited war aims in Ukraine, suggesting the Russian army is not equipped to take on the NATO states.
Rather, Russia invaded Ukraine because Kiev had become a de facto member of the alliance, a relationship that Rutte hopes to expand.
Stoltenberg, Rutte’s predecessor, served as Secretary General for a decade, overseeing the expansion of NATO to Russia’s border and increasing the bloc’s military ties with Ukraine and Georgia.
Stoltenberg remained in the post for an extended period of time because the alliance was unable to come to a consensus regarding his replacement. Ultimately, Rutte received widespread support from the bloc’s 32 members, in part because he is known for being tough with former-president Donald Trump.
Rutte’s appointment as a top civilian in the alliance is seen as a move to help “Trump proof” NATO’s support for Ukraine should the former president win the November election. While some top officials in NATO countries are concerned that Trump would end Washington’s massive military support for Kiev, he supported the $65 billion Ukraine aid package earlier this year.
5 mins read
Syria has fallen. It is now highly likely that the country will fall apart. Outside and inside actors will try to capture and/or control as many parts of the cadaver as each of them can. Years of chaos and strife will follow from that.
3 mins read
The ‘Kellogg Plan’ looks totally unacceptable to Moscow in its leaked form, but it’s still good to talk
6 mins read
Once the Warsaw Pact closed shop there was no good or honest reason for keeping NATO going. The threat that NATO was created to deter disappeared when the Soviet Union collapsed. The European Union’s influence on the new post-Cold War order has been by trade, investment, diplomacy and political intimacy, the hallmarks of a successful union that has mastered the art of expansion and influence by clever use of the carrot, whilst America has led its quest for influence by application of the doctrine of overriding military strength. Now we see its military lead in Ukraine while leading the EU into an entanglement that most European don’t want.
