On March 4, Emma Ashford was quoted by MSNBC on why it would have been beneficial to consider barring Ukraine from NATO to prevent escalation with Russia.
“Emma Ashford, resident senior fellow with the New American Engagement Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, wrote in an email that it was a ‘pity’ that ‘NATO’s open-door principle was not up for debate.’ Though she was skeptical about the political ability of the West to ‘promise to close NATO’s open door, particularly in a way that would have been credible to Moscow,’ she said there were potential ways to deal with Moscow’s concerns, such as ‘a moratorium on NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, conventional arms control agreements limiting the scope of NATO military integration and cooperation with Ukraine, or some form of negotiated Ukrainian neutrality.'”
