This essay is instructive and useful to situate and understand the nature, prospects and limitations of alliances, assurances and guarantees.
That said, it may be over-stating the durability of Western alliances and undertakings because so much depends on the USA, and the USA has demonstrated over the period of 2017 to 2021 just how fragile all previous understandings and commitments can be when adherence to them is under the control of people who have no regard for the rule of law, certainly no regard for international law, no commitment to anything promised in the past, no commitment to institutions the country nurtured supported in the past, are totally transactional and self-interested in nature and willing to trash anything that stands in the way of their particular ideological and material self-perceived interests.
It simply cannot be presumed that such an administration will not be returned to office in the USA, largely because of the political illiteracy of so many of its voters and the corruption of free and fair elections being erected there on a daily basis all over the country, with much diminished safeguards due to the population of the judiciary with servile like-minded people.
I think, sadly, fragility and uncertainty are the order of the day, and external authoritarian regimes are stoking and counting on this to bail themselves out of their own self-inflicted problems. I would like to be able to share the author's optimism about the robustness of the Western alliances, but I remain apprehensive, just observing and waiting to see what more we will know about the prospects for stability come November 2024.
Thank you for this important, clarifying post. Here in the United States, where the trump era has ushered in a new wave of isolationist sentiment and skepticism toward NATO, Dr. Tertrais's expert review of the positive role of our nation's alliances is desperately needed.
This essay is instructive and useful to situate and understand the nature, prospects and limitations of alliances, assurances and guarantees.
That said, it may be over-stating the durability of Western alliances and undertakings because so much depends on the USA, and the USA has demonstrated over the period of 2017 to 2021 just how fragile all previous understandings and commitments can be when adherence to them is under the control of people who have no regard for the rule of law, certainly no regard for international law, no commitment to anything promised in the past, no commitment to institutions the country nurtured supported in the past, are totally transactional and self-interested in nature and willing to trash anything that stands in the way of their particular ideological and material self-perceived interests.
It simply cannot be presumed that such an administration will not be returned to office in the USA, largely because of the political illiteracy of so many of its voters and the corruption of free and fair elections being erected there on a daily basis all over the country, with much diminished safeguards due to the population of the judiciary with servile like-minded people.
I think, sadly, fragility and uncertainty are the order of the day, and external authoritarian regimes are stoking and counting on this to bail themselves out of their own self-inflicted problems. I would like to be able to share the author's optimism about the robustness of the Western alliances, but I remain apprehensive, just observing and waiting to see what more we will know about the prospects for stability come November 2024.
Brilliant photo to exemplify the text. The summit was for NATO members, but everyone looks in awe at Zelensky, whose country is not a member.
Thank you for this important, clarifying post. Here in the United States, where the trump era has ushered in a new wave of isolationist sentiment and skepticism toward NATO, Dr. Tertrais's expert review of the positive role of our nation's alliances is desperately needed.