Expanding NATO Will Further Consolidate Europe’s Dependence on the US, nationalinterest.org

Sumantra Maitra, national-security fellow at the Center for the National Interest

[…] Put simply, Russia is not going to be the hegemonic specter looming over Europe anytime in the near future. What that logically entails is not that the Ukraine invasion is the first domino to fall across Europe, meriting a preoccupation with Russian encroachment, but rather, that Russia is a manageable threat that European states can increasingly balance on their own collectively. Europeans are perfectly capable without further investment of American treasure or promise of American blood, and a primacist grand strategy requiring American forward presence. The only reason Europe is taking a backseat is because it is reliant on the unending generosity of Americans. In addition, a much-weakened Russia can also be extremely volatile, prone to miscalculation and paranoia, which might be exacerbated by the “chain-ganging” of Western great powers by their activist junior allies—a very common and observable dynamic especially seen under the conditions of multipolarity wherein smaller protectorates and hectoring and sanctimonious allies attempt to drag much larger benefactors into a great power war. It is a trap the United States must judiciously avoid at all costs. Läs artikel

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