Jochen Bittner, veckomagasinet Die Zeits politiska redaktör och disputerad jurist, följer noga den säkerhetspolitiska diskussionen i sitt hemland och i Nato-sfären. Han har i tidigare kommentarer ställt en del vassa frågor rörande den pågående Nato-upprustningen vid östflanken – dess berättigande och dess effekter. I den här artikeln, publicerad av New York Times, inför Nato-toppmötet i Warszawa tar han upp några av militäralliansens rent existentiella problem.
Does Nato Still Exist?
Treaties are made to turn a will into an obligation. But what happens when this will changes? British voters have just given one example — however ill-informed — by dismissing the idea that European Union treaties deliver value to their country. Discomforting as it may be, there’s reason to take a critical look at an even older accord that binds the nations of the West: the NATO treaty.
Signed 67 years ago, the treaty holds the promise that an attack on one of the organization’s member states will be regarded as an attack on all. This solidarity clause, Article 5, was written by politicians of another generation, one with harsher experiences in a much simpler world order. Of course, you can never know until it is tested, but it’s worth asking: Is the thought that keeps the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alive already dead? Läs artikel