Let Russia into NATO

ARTICLE: Poland wants Russia to join NATO, MosNews, 31 Mar, 2009

I've been saying this for too many years to remember. Can't remember the first time I made the argument in print.

(Thanks: David Brooks)

Comments

[Ira Straus]

Hi, glad you share this goal. The Committee on Eastern Europe and Russia in NATO (CEERN) has existed since 1992 for the purposes of:

1) Getting NATO to figure out how to give a constructive response to the post-Communist countries that have some interest in joining it. At this point, this comes down mostly to figuring out how to bring Russia into NATO.

2) Adapting NATO more completely for post-Cold War functions, and for managing with a wider membership. This means, primarily, increasing its flexibility in making and implementing decisions.

Interest in the first point has grown in the last year, as people have noticed that it is the only way to give real meaning to Medvedev's calls for an OSCE-wide security order. Interest in the second point has grown as a number of NATO figures and ex-figures, including the former SACEUR, now National Security Adviser, James Jones, have called for use of some voting instead of almost always relying on consensus in NATO.

Why not join us?

best,Ira Straus(U.S. coordinator for CEERN)

[purpleslog]

Hi,

Won't this just give Russia a veto on NATO actions?

Russia isn't acting like an ally or even a friendly neutral, why the US befor this?

Is the idea to transform NATO into a org to hug/embrace Russia and...well I can't figure this out.

It would be good to get Russia to a default position of being at least a friendly neutral. How does that get done by including Russia in NATO now?

Thanks!

[Louis Heberlein]

If NATO reduced its 'defend West Europe' image, we could get more Western Hemisphere interest and participation. That would be useful in overcoming 'colonial' era and TR expansionism concerns in Latin America.

It would also encourage natural cultural and economic exchanges without as much emphasis on 'bad old days' memories.

[ende]

We are letting Russia into NATO, in a manner of speaking. That is exactly what NATO accession for Ukraine and Georia is all about. Russia is too big a pill to be swalloed in one gulp. It has to be contained, reduced into is constiutent pieces, and gradually absorbed into Western security/economic structures a couple states at a time.

Unfortunately Russia as-is is not a core-player. It isn't interested in shrinking the gap. In fact, it would go to great lengths to maintain the gap if doing so created the large buffer between Moscow and the West that its geography fails to do.