The Modern Purpose of NATO

Keep the Russians out, the Germans involved in defense, and the European Union down

A famous description of the purpose of NATO was once accurate. But it needs to be modified for the modern era of new objectives for an old NATO alliance.

There is much speculation about what a new administration means for NATO and the role of America. As the author notes, Trump's actions in the past pushed NATO to spend more and proposed shifting American forces from Germany to Poland. Four years changed much in Europe and NATO. But don't assume America will downgrade NATO in the hope that the European Union will defend our interests in Europe. That would be insane.

After American left Europe following World War I, Europeans have lamented that without America a rising Germany could not be stopped by weakening Western European powers. And while Germany was crushed and dismembered in World War II and deprived of a chance to try for another go at conquering Europe, that didn't end threats to the West. 

The war allowed the Soviet Union to advance through Europe to the Elbe River in their own part of dismembered Germany--the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). And without American nukes, Stalin might have gone farther.

So America stayed in Europe and we founded NATO:

Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay was NATO’s first Secretary General, a position he was initially reluctant to accept. By the end of his tenure however, Ismay had become the biggest advocate of the organisation he had famously said earlier on in his political career, was created to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

Ismay was right to advocate for the alliance because his earlier quip was correct. We won that Cold War with NATO. Many think NATO is obsolete since then, but Russia's brutal war on Ukraine and repeated threats to NATO states both east and west of the USSR' old front inside Germany should make us all glad NATO still exists.

I say the purpose of maintaining NATO is to keep the Russians out, the Germans involved in defense, and the European Union down.

America has interests in all three of those objectives. All of those objectives support America's strategic goal of keeping enemies from threatening America from the Atlantic Ocean.

And not to be rude to our European friends and allies, but perhaps we should consider what might happen if Europeans are fully capable of waging war without American support?

And a friendly Europe with its military power funneled through NATO allows America to keep its military power in Europe limited in order to face China across the Pacific. 

NOTE: I made the image with Bing. After three tries, this one was as close as I could get to my new purpose of NATO.