“The 2008 invitation that NATO extended to Ukraine and Georgia was a bad idea, too, one which, as George Kennan noted about NATO’s eastward expansion, was an act of first-rate geopolitical stupidity, a gratuitous insult to Russia”
By Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect
Let me state at the outset that I don’t think the absurd invitation that NATO made to Ukraine in 2008 was the proximate, or even unproximate, cause of Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade that country. Given Putin’s commitment to creating a neo-czarist Greater Russia, I think the invasion would have taken place in any case. If anything, Ukraine’s more credible campaign to join the European Union, which would likely push Ukraine toward becoming a more liberal state, posed the greater threat in Putin’s mind, since a thriving liberalism on Russia’s border would make right-wing autocracy harder to sustain in Russia itself. Encirclement by NATO, which clearly wasn’t going to happen in any case, wasn’t a serious threat. Encirclement by Europe, with its less macho and more liberal culture, was.

But the specter, however far-fetched, of NATO encirclement did offer Putin a pretext for invasion—more credible, at least, than the claim that Ukraine was a Nazi regime. But blaming NATO for forcing Putin to bombard Ukraine’s civilian population is a little like blaming Hitler’s decision to make war on Europe, Russia, and the U.S. on the Treaty of Versailles, which, as John Maynard Keynes wrote in 1920, levied ruinous reparations on Germany.
Yes, the treaty was a bad idea that helped the Nazis come to power, just as the 2008 invitation that NATO extended to Ukraine and Georgia was a bad idea, too, one which, as George Kennan noted about NATO’s eastward expansion, was an act of first-rate geopolitical stupidity, a gratuitous insult to Russia.
Recent Posts
Starbucks Workers Build Steam
March 25, 2023
Take Action Now Since last fall, the union effort has increased its capacity to exert pressure on the corporate mega-giant—including in a March 22…
Banking Crisis 3.0: Time To Change The Rules Of The Game
March 24, 2023
Take Action Now What constituted a radical departure from capitalist principles in the last financial crisis was not “nationalization” but an…
Behind The #StopCopCity Domestic Terrorism Warrants
March 24, 2023
Take Action Now “Most of the criminal defense lawyers I have spoken with are indicating that there is no individualized suspicion in any of these…
Here’s How The US Could Phase Out Fossil Fuels Fast
March 24, 2023
Take Action Now A new report lists 10 policies to constrain polluting infrastructure and achieve key climate goals. By Joseph Winters, Grist On…