FLASH
Shkruar nga Lucio Caracciolo
NATO died in Kiev...
For the first time in history, the European NATO countries are mobilizing troops for anti-American deterrence. The theater of operations is Greenland, which Trump continues to promise to conquer at all costs. France is leading, followed by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Finland and Norway for joint exercises. Not Italy, because according to Foreign Minister Tajani, "unilateral presence" by individual Atlantic countries is useless, and besides, we can act "only within the framework of NATO". In other words: we can only deter America together with America.
The problem that Rome seems to miss is that the Atlantic Alliance is no longer what it used to be. The split over Greenland is proof of this. "It sounds like the beginning of a joke." But it's not funny. Because it highlights the strategic revolution that is undermining our security. Those Europeans are not on the Danish island to repel a Russian or Chinese invasion, but to respond to Trump's threats.
From a military perspective, the deployment of minimal European forces on the Danish island has symbolic value, even though Macron announces that "additional land, naval and air forces" will arrive soon.
Meanwhile, his ambassador for the Polar and Oceanic Regions, Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, warns: "This is a first exercise. We will show the Americans that NATO is present." Is the world upside down? Are members rebelling against the leader? Simply put: alliances no longer matter; alignments matter. As defined by the US National Security Strategy. And as practiced by all, friends and enemies of the West.
This, like it or not, is the current climate. The transatlantic bloc is history. NATO and the EU continue to exist as organizations. But without a soul. And without a brain, in line with the formula launched by Macron in 2019, according to which NATO is "brain dead."
The war in Ukraine confirms this, exposing the internal lines of division within the Euro-Atlantic family from the start. These are complicated today by Macron’s declared willingness to negotiate with Putin, followed by Meloni, while German Chancellor Merz reminds us that Russia is part of Europe, today even banalities can seem revolutionary.
On the other hand, Starmer confirms that there is nothing to negotiate with Moscow. This thesis cements the Scandinavian-Baltic-Polish bloc, according to which Ukrainians are the first line of defense against the imminent invasion of Europe by Russia. And as a recent Norwegian study shows, supporting the Ukrainian resistance costs much less than its future reconstruction.
NATO died in Kiev. In 2022, Putin invaded Ukraine because he didn’t want it to join the Atlantic Alliance. Or, worse, because he didn’t want NATO to join Ukraine. In that case, it would have become the anti-Russian vanguard of the Americans, the British, and the northern Europeans, who could have used it despite the more or less formal restrictions imposed by the Atlantic Pact. Four years later, Putin’s adventure, which ultimately led Russia into the arms of China, its long-time strategic adversary, takes on increasingly paradoxical contours. For reasons that 22nd-century historians may be able to uncover, Putin decided to unleash his troops against his unwilling neighbor, installing his puppet there to the applause of the locals. This coup was intended as compensation for the one facilitated by the Anglo-Americans in 2014, sealed by the then US representative, Victoria Nuland, with the cry "Fuck Europe!". A cry that resonates in the arguments of the Trump administration, of the opposing political spectrum, ready to end the game with Putin over the heads of the Ukrainians. And us Europeans.
Americans are divided on everything except their intolerance for Europe. We are experiencing a double fracture in the transatlantic architecture: between Americans and Europeans, but also among ourselves as Europeans. The decisive test has yet to come. Once a ceasefire is established that we call peace, the responsibility and costs of reconstruction will fall on our shoulders. Some think they can get by by creating a second-rate European Union to accommodate what is left of Ukraine. A mockery for the Ukrainians. Another tragic bluff for the EU. We do not know what the outcome of this unprecedented crisis will be. But to pretend to live in a world that no longer exists is to be overwhelmed by it./Adapted from “Pamphlet” by “LaRepubblica”
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