Reimagining NATO

"I hear people saying that what happened, and is still happening in Ukraine, was completely unexpected and unpredictable, that it was a kind of wake up call."
"It actually was a wake-up call for many, but not the countries of our region. For years, Lithuania, Poland and other Baltic States [were called] Russophobes, unable to wake up from the dreams of old Soviet times and face new reality. The reality was that threats had no boundaries and were difficult to predict."
"NATO in its essence is about the empathy, about sacrifice for the sake of your ally. Lithuania always took its share. We were in the Balkans, we were in Iraq, we led PRT in Afghanistan and stayed with our forces as a part of [Operation] Resolute Support. We are in Mali and we contributed to the French efforts in Central African Republic. We do support current efforts against ISIS and we will do our share in the future as well."
"[At the summit in] Wales, we stated that NATO remains an essential source of stability in this unpredictable world. It is very important that the gap between acknowledging that fact and mobilizing our national and collective resources and political will to project that stability [doesn't] widen."
Juozas Olekas, Lithuanian Defence Minister

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has worsened in recent days, despite the ceasefire plan agreed last September

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has stated once again, this time at Davos, that his country has been invaded by Russian troops. Five thousand Russian troops, he stated, and 300 Russian tanks, shoring up the fighting ability of the rebels who, minus Moscow's interference in Ukraine's affairs, would long since have surrendered their mission to shift Ukrainian territory into the grasp of Russia's turning back the present into the past, recreating the USSR.

The American ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, spoke of the new peace proposal put forward by President Vladimir Putin as little more than advancing his plans at military occupation. "The plan would seek to legitimize territorial gains made by separatists in September as well as Russian personnel and equipment on the territory of Ukraine", she said at a special meeting of the UN Security Council. "Let us pull the veil away from Putin's peace plan and call it for what it is; a Russian occupation plan."


The countries bordering Ukraine know very well what Russia's intense interest in acquiring new territory signifies for them. The Baltic states dread the implacable will of Moscow and Mr. Putin to renew old bonds and strengthen the Russian federation, creeping inexorably toward the union that collapsed with the fall of the USSR. They were indeed 'Russophobes' in recognition of their status under the old union, and have no wish whatever to repeat the experiment that failed so dramatically.

Lithuanian Defence Minister Juozas Olekas emphasized that countries like his own have acknowledged that the presumed and relied-upon world order based on territorial sovereignty can no longer be relied upon; something like aligning Russia with honour and respect for the nations that Moscow terms the 'near abroad', and fair game for once again pillaging. "Therefore we must re-evaluate our own assumptions about our security."

And ideally, he and the other nations that have become part of NATO, would most appreciate it were NATO to recognize those changes and alter their responsibilities to their member-nations accordingly. During the Russia-Georgia war in 2008 Mr Olekas recalls calling on fellow NATO colleagues to consider changing the manner in which they regarded the protection of territories of each member state singly. He recommended considering protecting NATO-member borders in their entirety.

"I still believe this is an idea worth consideration. We need to rethink NATO's posture and command structure as it reflects the realities of the Cold War and economic downturn, rather than the new alliance after expanding and re-emerging threats we are facing."