Brent Scowcroft Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Matthew Kroenig writes for Survival on Russian aggression and what it means for the stability of the post-Cold War order in Europe:
Russia’s annexation of Crimea, invasion of Donbas, and continued threats to Ukraine and other European countries not only menace the stability of the post-Cold War order in Europe, but also pose a fundamental challenge to the assumptions about the strategic environment that have undergirded the NATO alliance for the past quarter of a century.
Since 1989, NATO strategy has been premised on a set of beliefs, each one of which has been called into question by recent events: the Euro-Atlantic community is stable; NATO does not face any serious threats to its collective defence; NATO’s most likely military missions will be out-of-area operations; enlargement of the Atlantic community will lead to a Europe whole, free and at peace; and Russia can be regarded as, or will soon become, a strategic partner. Indeed, each of these ideas featured prominently in NATO’s most recent Strategic Concept, released at the NATO summit in 2010, and in its Deterrence and Defence Posture Review, published just two years ago.