The Strategic Significance of NATO: A Historian's Perspective on U.S. Power Strengthening

Historian Grey Anderson discusses the recent NATO summit in Lithuania, where Turkey dropped its opposition to inviting Sweden into NATO and Ukraine expressed disappointment over the lack of a concrete timeline for its own membership. Anderson argues that NATO has not lived up to its claims of being an alliance of values and democracies, and that it has actually weakened European security by preventing the creation of a coordinated autonomous European defense. He suggests that NATO serves as a vehicle for the US to defend its own interests in Europe and reduce Europe's room for maneuver, ultimately securing American influence in Europe on the cheap. Anderson also highlights the dependency of European states on American power and the leverage it gives the US over European decision-making. He concludes that NATO has been strengthened in recent years, particularly due to the crisis in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Crimea.