“Collective Self-Defence” is the crux of the NATO alliance. It is also the key selling point to the alliance and prospective new members. “Collective self-defence” means that an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all Allies.

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization binds all the members committed to protecting each other.

Historically, alliances have been formed by kingdoms, big and small. It has been to fight the enemies and create a strategic security defence tactfully. 

Hence, nothing new in this modern age, when the countries like the United States, France and the United Kingdom allied. It was to counter the threat against the expansionist intentions and military moves of the Soviet Union.

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 After the Great War, the Soviet Union under Stalin colonised countries on its western border like Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania etc.

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“Collective self-defence” means that an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all Allies

Those were the days when physical expansion by a strong army was the method to exert dominance. The Soviet Union was doing it. Probably all-powerful nations wanted to do so.

We are trying to answer here about the existence of NATO article 5 and its effects on geopolitics.

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With NATO, it has created a polarised world. It came up in the direct competition of the Soviet bloc. Although article 5 of NATO created a shared commitment of collective defence, it also created another opposing power block in the bipolar world. 

It led to the cold war, lasting decades and many other competitive wars like the Korean war, the Afghanistan Invasion and Mujahidin Guerrilla war of the 80s, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile crisis, the Division of Berlin and Germany etc.

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These extraordinary events could have been avoided if there had been no geopolitical competition. Then, each country would have managed their affairs and relationship with the powers, individually.

After the breakup of the Soviet bloc in the 1990s, the world should have been a peaceful place, as it brought an end to the cold war. But the world has been an even more dangerous place.

 In the last 30 years, we witnessed significant wars like the Gulf War, the Afghanistan war, the Iraq war and continued Syrian conflict, the war in Yemen, and now the Ukrainian – Russian war. 

All these are the ones since 1990 when the Soviet bloc started to disintegrate, leading to a mono-polar world. Global terrorism is also attributed to the NATO war in Afghanistan and the US-led invasion of Iraq to a great extent.

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If NATO had played a subdued role in the geopolitics after the breakup of the Soviet bloc, the world would have been a safer and more peaceful place, is one powerful argument.

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... today, the Ukrainian war is a proxy war between NATO and Russia

Since the 1990s, there have been three waves of expansion of NATO. Initially, there were just 12 founding countries, joined by four more states before the end of the Soviet Bloc. The expansion was justified as the Cold War ensued, and collective security provided much-needed protection.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO in 1999.

In the 2nd wave of NATO expansion, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined NATO in 2004. These countries had direct borders with Russia.

Albania and Croatia joined in the 3rd wave of 2009, followed by Montenegro (2017) and North Mecedonia (2020).

The argument cited by NATO for including these countries is backed by UN chapter 1, Article 1. It states that all members need respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace. 

However, in reality, the politics and lobbying of the governments define their alliances, which bypasses the people’s right to self-determination.

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All the six countries of 2nd wave joining NATO members potentially pose a security threat to Russia on its western front. With Ukraine exhibiting intention of joining NATO’s collective defence system, the entire western border of Russia will be surveilled by NATO forces.

As a result, today, the Ukrainian war is a proxy war between NATO and Russia. The alliance members do not have boots on the ground but supply arms to the Ukrainian army. 

Outside of the war zone, the NATO alliances are applying sanctions on the Russian government, Russian companies, and Russians. Under which charter of International law, this is done is unknown. So how can this not be termed as a NATO-Russian war?

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NATO’s collective defence’s side effect is visible in the national budgets. However tough the economic times maybe, a member nation has to spend a fixed percentage of the budget on defence compulsorily. 

On average, member countries have been spending 2% of their GDP. Greece and the United States’ share of defence expenditure is around 4%. 

The share of defence expenditure has increased with an increase in respective GDP. As of 2021, the NATO member spends $ 1 Trillion annually. It would also be in the G20 club if NATO were a country.

The defence industry has flourished consequently. It is not unknown that the best technology and talent is allocated to research and development in this industry.

Ironically, with all the big budgets, research and developments, NATO has still not been able to deter countries and organisations from carrying out attacks. 

On the contrary, the conflicts have taken a new form of global terrorism. It no more relies upon conventional warfare like the tanks on the battlefield or trench warfare. 

The world has seen 9/11 terror attacks, ISIL brutality, Afghanistan and Iraq disasters, continued devastation in Syria, and the Russian – Ukrainian street fights.

Is it that NATO’s spending and posturing are intimidating the peaceful co-existence of the other countries?

In a multipolar world, many countries have made a unique power position. China has grown into a powerful state, wielding economic power across the continents. 

Even the worst of their adversaries, like the US, trade billions with China. Germany, from within the NATO alliances, has Nord stream-2, the grand gas-friendship alliance with Russia. 

Turkey, a key member of NATO, also has defence ties with Russia, too. They have bought the top of the class S-400 missiles from Russia, the same Russia NATO sees as an arch-enemy. 

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The oil-producing nations like Saudi Arabia and defence technology pioneer Israel have their elements of neutrality in this multipolar world. All these have come to the surface in this reconfiguration of geopolitics during the Russian-Ukrainian war.

“Collective Defence” as in NATO – Article 5 may be a good idea in the 20th century. But, in modern times of the multipolar world, highly interconnected globalised economies, and cross-cultural social media streams, there is a need to have “Collective Peace” instead. 

Blocs and their boundaries are things of the past. On either side of the aisle, each has stakes in others. Therefore, each has to be in harmony, if all have to be in peace.