But the most important matter that went unmentioned in Strasbourg is the relationship with Russia. NATO was founded to confront the threat that the Soviet Union represented 60 years ago. But the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union’s “anti-NATO” alliance of socialist countries, was dissolved in 1991; communism imploded the same year, with Russia caught ever since in a struggle to build a market economy and define a new global position for itself.
At a time when Russia was taking a more pacific course, NATO — unlike the Warsaw Pact — was not dismantled. On the contrary, the allies chose to maintain the pact and to extend it to numerous Russian neighbors.
NATO’s members essentially said: “We Western nations do not trust you. Even if you become a democracy, we will always be suspicious.”
George Kennan, one of the greatest US diplomats of the post-war years, once wrote that the Western world was committing its biggest mistake in 50 years time by expanding NATO after Soviet communism collapsed. The resulting humiliation and blatant mistrust that Russia’s elite has felt ever since has led them to their policy of rearmament. The only way to resolve this problem is for NATO to assert its pacific intentions before the world.
The most convincing way to do that is to moderate the US’ excessive taste for power, which it demonstrated in Iraq. NATO needs to shift its focus from organizing and administering a unified military command to building real confidence that every member’s voice will be heard.
To that end, all members must stand on an equal footing. France’s decision to return to full and equal alliance membership was a good one, and France must now work from within to advance the principles in which it believes.
Michel Rocard is a former French prime minister and head of the Socialist Party and now a member of the European Parliament.
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