I’ve learned so much from @shifrinson on this issue of whether the West made a promise on nato enlargement, which I now think is the wrong way to frame it. I would just add one point to this excellent thread 1/
https://twitter.com/shifrinson/status/1393536671451385859
The US and its partners assured the Soviets/Russians they wouldn’t undermine the latter’s security as they retreated from Europe 2/
The US points to its withdrawals of troops and reductions of heavy equipment etc and says, we lived up to this. Plus, the West says, nato enlargement was never directed against Russia 3/
The Russians point to the enlargement of a cold-war alliance and say, you undermined our security after saying you wouldn’t take advantage of our retreat! 4/
We should recognize these different interpretations set up a clash that isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Focusing on whether there was a written pledge on enlargement (there wasn’t) as I used to do isn’t particularly helpful for understanding the dynamics of past 30 yrs. 5/5
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