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NATO can’t tackle our biggest threat: global climate breakdown [1]

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Date: 2023-07

NATO really is on a roll thanks to Vladimir Putin, but even as its immediate prospects look good, the whole future of the alliance should be open to question.

For now, as Finland and Sweden join, Putin finds an enlarged alliance ranged against him. NATO’s reputation is so bound up with the fate of Ukraine that, in the unlikely event that Russia makes substantial military gains in the conflict, Kyiv cannot be allowed to lose. From Putin’s perspective, his warning early last year of the threat posed to Russia from NATO has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This does at least mean he can claim ‘I told you so’ – which is helping maintain some domestic support.

Meanwhile, things just keep getting better for NATO. After years of fighting disastrous wars, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya, it can now forget about them – whatever the enduring human disasters they leave behind.

To make matters even more rosy, military budgets are rising, lots of new weapons are being developed and existing ones produced in huge numbers. Both will lead to more sales for the armourers as countries across the world rush to buy new kit, even if their armed forces have no connection with the war in Ukraine.

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Arms sales are boosted directly by the Ukraine experience. The UK’s defence procurement minister, James Cartlidge, recently said that new missiles sent there have received “rave reviews”. Ukraine now has “a potent weapon” and the technology is “highly in demand”.

Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Resnikov, put it more bluntly: “Our Western allies can actually see if their weapons work, how efficiently they work and if they need to be upgraded. For the military industry of the world, you can’t invent a better testing ground.” And to make it better still for the arms industry, Joe Biden is now likening the conflict to the start of the Cold War, apparently thinking in terms of years of war ahead.

Nevertheless, NATO is taking care not to get too entangled, always bearing in mind the risk that Putin may move to more extreme tactics. This is one reason why Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO anytime soon.

That apart, the underlying issues are that the war is deeply embedded, NATO feels increasingly sure of itself, and the arms companies are reaping handsome rewards.

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/nato-vilnius-summit-ukraine-membership-climate-breakdown/

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