Airstrip One

From Vancouver to Vladivostok - 19th November 2002, 21.47

NATO enlargement is neither efficacious nor productive for the military capabilities of the Alliance. It is about repaying moral debts enshrined in blood at Yalta and guaranteeing security to small countries on the periphery.

However, raise one's eyes above Europe and you see that China could view the current chain of US bases in Central Asia, a friendly Russia and its secure allies in East Asia as a form of encirclement. That is why China confirmed that it has opened a dialogue with NATO and leads to a globalised future for NATO.

China, in other words, doesn’t want to be left out in a world where NATO is becoming a sort of total security blanket that almost challenges the United Nations. And similarly, the US is also moving in this direction, expanding NATO but at the same time grading the real participation of its members.

With the agreement with Russia and now the dialogue with China, NATO is becoming something else, something more global that could soon include Japan and South Korea.

There are two important aspects to this new-look NATO: one, the benefits of each member state; and two, the role of the US, which leads the alliance now more than ever. Each member state benefits, no matter what its position in the grading system that places the various countries closer or further from the core - ie, the US. The advantage of membership is that member states will never be isolated, and so China would benefit by being in NATO's orbit.

NATO becomes the global vehicle through which states organise their security relationship with the leader, the United States. Not empire, but imperium. Iain Murray provides more discussion and a link on the distinction.