THE NATO WAR ALLIANCE IS AGGRAVATING CLIMATE BREAKDOWN
Posted: 31st July 2023
PROF PAUL ROGERS: IT IS IRONIC THAT THE RECENT NATO SUMMIT WAS DOMINATED BY THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE JUST AS A BELT OF COUNTRIES FROM SPAIN THROUGH TO TURKEY WAS EXPERIENCING EXTREME TEMPERATURE SURGES
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.