Editorial Analysis | Mission Creep: On NATO Expansionism For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

Table of Contents

Context

Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.

Russia launched a full scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia stated that the reason behind this aggression was the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Russia feels that Ukraine becoming a member in the future would threaten its interests by bringing a formidable security coalition into the neighbourhood of Russia.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

NATO was signed in April 1949, with three objectives:
1. Deterring Soviet expansionism,
2. Forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent
3. Encouraging European political integration.
The history of the Nazi troubles and World War II were the main reasons for its creation.
NATO claims that its creation was to check the threats from the then Soviet Union.
There is a strong emphasis on military cooperation and collective defence in its mandate.
- For example, Article 5 says that “an armed attack against one or more of them, shall be considered an attack against them all” and that following such an attack, each member would take “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force” in response.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

In 1955, when the Cold War was getting stronger, the Soviet Union signed up socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe to the Warsaw Pact.
The pact included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
The Pact, was mainly a political-military alliance aimed at countering NATO and its focus was on East Germany which was still a part of the Soviet occupied-territory of Germany,
The Federal Republic of Germany partnered with NATO in 1955, and Russia started to worry about the consequences of a strong and rearmed West Germany at its border.
As a unified, multilateral, political and military alliance, the Warsaw Pact was aimed at connecting Eastern European capitals to Russia, which it succeeded for many decades despite the Cold War.
The Pact allowed the Soviet Union to suppress civil uprisings across the European satellite states, including in Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), and Poland (1980)
The pact started to weaken in the late 1980s, due to the pressure of economic slowdown in most of the European allies, which reduced the potential for military cooperation.
In September 1990 that East Germany quit the Pact to be reunified with West Germany, and soon Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland withdrew from the Warsaw Pact.
The Pact was dissolved in early 1991, post the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

As the Soviet Union was disintegrated, NATO started to expand its presence.
NATO successfully negotiated and expanded to include former Warsaw Pact states as its members.
Germany continued to be a member of NATO after its reunification.
The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined the alliance in 1999.
In 2004, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia joined NATO
Again, in 2009 Albania and Croatia signed up.
In 2017, Montenegro joined the organization along with North Macedonia’s in 2020.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

In 2008, NATO allies offered membership to Ukraine and Georgia
NATO announced measures to engage with both countries at a high political level to address their issues regarding their Membership Action Plan.
This concerned Russia, because Ukraine is a country that was considered to have strong historic ties first to the Soviet Union and then Russia.
This development prompted Russia to warn the NATO led by the U.S. and stated that “no Russian leader could stand idly by in the face of steps toward NATO membership for Ukraine. That would be a hostile act toward Russia.”
This is considered the main reason for the recent Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

In early 1990 with the Two Plus Four meeting that included East and West Germany plus the United States, France, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom; a decision was made on whether a unified Germany would be part of NATO.
- In this meeting, a U.S. leader in 1990 had stated that “there would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east.”
It was a difficult time in Russian politics, domestically, because in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s disintegration, there was a failure to institutionalise democratic practices, a stable market economy, and a robust law and order system.
In this time of crisis the then Russian President interpreted the Two Plus Four Treaty as a ban on NATO expansion east of Germany.
- Russia uses this statement to justify its outrage against NATO’s expansion towards its rim lands.
Even in the 2000s, Russia continued this stance with increasing alarm and anger at NATO’s steady expansion into Eastern Europe.
In 2008, following NATO’s offer of membership to Georgia and Ukraine,
- Russia invaded Georgia and took control of several of its territorial regions.
- In 2014, with Ukraine moving much closer towards an economic alliance with the European Union, Russia entered into Ukraine and annexed Crimea.