(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) The Russia-Ukraine crisis has brought to the fore speculation that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may be on its last legs as an international force, with one commentator suggesting that the Atlantic Alliance is a “dead man walking.”
“While geopolitical commentators are fixated on Russia’s border with Ukraine, a more interesting development is slowly boiling underneath the surface . . . namely, the death of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),” wrote José Niño in a commentary posted at the Mises Institute.
“The Russo-Ukrainian conflict is currently exposing contradictions within Europe regarding security and economic priorities,” Niño continued. Some NATO nations “believe that Russia’s security concerns are reasonable” and that “robust trade ties” with Russia are essential to Europe’s future.
European nations under NATO’s sway are therefore becoming increasingly disappointed with the parochial nearsightedness of the the American-led diplomatic organization.
Niño pointed to French President Emmanual Macron‘s 2019 claim that the world is witnessing “the brain death of NATO,” and to presidential candidate Eric Zemmour’s warning that France must stop “being a tool of the United States.”
“The US is trying to divide Russia from France and Germany,” Zemmour told France 5. “And every time they get closer to each other, the Americans find a way to divide them.”
Niño also suggested that NATO isn’t equipped to handle either strife between member countries like Greece and Turkey, or set a common policy on Chinese aggression throughout the world.
“The potential unraveling of NATO could mark the beginning of the end of American geopolitical supremacy,” Niño concluded.
“The US’s vast military footprint has done scant little to uphold middle American interests, but it has fattened the pockets of the defense industry and kept many self-proclaimed foreign policy ‘experts’ employed at DC think tanks.”
William Moloney, a Fellow Colorado Christian University, made a similar argument in a commentary published by The Hill in December.
“In 2015, a Pew Research Center poll found that, among NATO members, only in the United States and Canada did a majority support military force to aid a NATO member that was invaded,” Moloney wrote.