Protecting NATO’s security community
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- NDC Policy Brief 10-22: Protecting NATO’s security community , by Alexandra Gheciu *
Following Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine,
numerous Western policy-makers and analysts
have interpreted the Alliance’s cohesiveness and
prompt response as evidence of its value in protecting
the transatlantic community of liberal-democracy. NATO’s Allies, the argument goes, have clearly demonstrated their shared determination to protect allied territory and core liberal-democratic values, re-affirming
the Alliance’s unshaken commitment to the principle
of collective defence. But can this momentum be sustained?
While the Ukraine crisis has triggered initial practices of unity, it has also highlighted – and rendered more complex – difficult questions, tensions and normative dilemmas for NATO. This policy brief examines some of the key challenges that NATO is likely to face in protecting the transatlantic security community in the unstable, post-February 2022 environment. What is particularly important to understand is that some of those challenges concern key norms and values around which NATO defines itself. There are no simple answers to the political questions facing the security community – but there are steps that can be taken to put the Allies in a stronger position to address them.
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* (back) Professor of International Politics at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and current MINDS Fellow at NDC.