Defense ministers from NATO nations met on Oct. 15 in Brussels in a gathering that proved to be positive, productive, but generated little attention.
The meeting has been substantially overshadowed by developments elsewhere, including in particular the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel regarding Gaza, and the latest meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, D.C.
NATO has been remarkably successful at helping to maintain stability and keep the peace, both during the tense, fraught years of the Cold War and during the extremely uncertain years since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The latest meeting focused on strengthening air defenses and expanding effective assistance to Ukraine in the ongoing war with Russia, which began early in 2022.
So far, $2 billion in arms from the U.S. designated for Ukraine have been purchased by a consortium consisting of Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. More arrangements are in the works.
Another main focus was greater integration of air defense systems to counter what are now persistent violations of European airspace by Russian aircraft.
NATO is a remarkably durable alliance. Nations led by the U.S. and Britain signed the NATO treaty in Washington, D.C. in April 1949. By contrast, alliances lasted on average only five years during the Napoleonic wars of two centuries ago.
This was a response to Soviet expansionism during and after World War II. By 1949, the Cold War was on.
The collapse of Eastern European communist regimes, followed by the Soviet Union, ended the Cold War but not conflicts in Europe. In 2008, Russian troops invaded a portion of Georgia, following an attack by Georgian troops on South Ossetia. Russia encouraged and fostered these breakaway efforts. In 2014, Russia intervened in eastern Ukraine and annexed the territory of Crimea.
The conclusion of the Cold War was a great victory for the policy of restraint and deterrence, termed “containment.” Every U.S. president — from Harry Truman, when the Cold War commenced, to George H.W. Bush, when that conflict ended — supported this foundation security policy.
NATO today has a range of missions, including but going beyond self-defense narrowly defined. Forces have operated well beyond the North Atlantic region, including notably in Afghanistan. Humanitarian work has included transport and other support missions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This, in turn, opens the door to a range of positive and productive activities beyond traditional military defense and security. With further expansion of economic development in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and more widely, demand for better education, health care and related humanitarian activities also will grow.
This could lead to further development of the alliance’s capacities and involvement beyond purely military dimensions.
Article 5 of the NATO treaty states that an attack on one member nation is an attack on all. The 9/11 terrorist strikes on New York and Washington, D.C., and in the skies over Pennsylvania, triggered this clause for the first time.
After the final defeat of Napoleon, Britain spearheaded cooperation among Europe’s nations to keep the peace. This maintained general stability on the continent for a century.
Today, NATO performs roughly the same strategic role. The Russia-Ukraine war provides a different test, not the relative stability of the long Cold War.
Tensions with the Trump administration overshadow this remarkable success. NATO’s durability is a truly historic triumph.
Learn More: Henry A. Kissinger, “The Troubled Partnership” and his other books.
Arthur I. Cyr is author of “After the Cold War” (Palgrave/Macmillan and NYU Press).
Contact acyr@carthage.edu
