Deterring To Defend: Delivering On NATO’s Promise

Russia’s invasion and illegal occupation of parts of Ukraine in March 2014 was a wake-up call for the international community. It also shattered the already fragile relations between Russia and the West. With these actions, Vladimir Putin’s Russia had shown itself to be not just uncooperative but belligerent, unpredictable and mendacious. Its rhetoric and its military posture became aggressive, and its word could no longer be trusted.

It took President Putin’s hostile and brutal aggression against Ukraine, and a pattern of Russian provocation directed against NATO Allies and partners for Western leaders to question the premises of the policies implemented since the end of the Cold War, and rediscover the importance of NATO’s main mission: the collective defense of Allied populations and territory. Click here to read my whitepaper on the subject, Deterring To Defend: Delivering On NATO’s Promise.