1/6: Six tweets on #NATO. It remains really important to us. A defensive alliance between the democracies of Europe & North America is indisputably a good thing. It’s far from perfect, but we are fortunate to have it & should not belittle it or take it for granted.
2/6: Through #NATO Europe still enjoys an indispensable US security umbrella, despite Trump’s intemperance. US demands for greater burden sharing are reasonable. But it’s not all one way traffic. America derives great strategic advantage from the support of allies.
3/6: Macron is right that Europe should build more autonomous capability & that we need to review the purpose of #NATO. It’s a Cold War legacy rooted in territorial defence against Russia. Sadly we still need that, but NATO also needs to show relevance to new security threats.
4/6: #NATO can no longer claim “out of area” activity as a raison d’être. The record is poor & there is little appetite for, or moral acceptance of, intervention. That is not to exclude any out of area NATO action, just to say that it must be carefully thought through.
5/6: The biggest challenge in the new geopolitics is the relationship between US & China. We need to think this through. #NATO bolsters America’s global position, but how would Europeans honour Article 5 if China attacked US assets in the South China Sea?
6/6: Though some good work was done, the #NATO 70th Anniversary was a missed opportunity. Neither leaders nor the media rose to the occasion. Western democracies may be troubled, but the alternatives are worse. They are certainly still worth collectively defending.
