Opinion: Busting the myths of #NATO mission in eastern Europe

The continuous economic and political crisis in Europe has exhausted the European Union, causing the disbalance of the EU’s political structure and setting its leaders apart. However, the roots of the current situation in Europe lies not only in the internal failure of the EU’s social and economic system, but also in the US’s and NATO’s involvement in EU politics, particularly in eastern Europe, writes Olga Malik.

Earlier in July 2016, hundreds of peace activists gathered in Poland’s capital, Warsaw to protest NATO expansion in eastern Europe. The protest took place while the US’ President Barack Obama was holding a meeting with his NATO fellows in Warsaw. As some activists claimed, further expansion of NATO in eastern Europe may cause the same disbalance as it did in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq in the early 2000s.

The fears of Polish citizens may have real grounds: according to the NATO’s Atlantic Council report 'Arming for Deterrence: How Poland and NATO Should Counter a Resurgent Russia', Poland should be ready for militarization as Russia poses the main threat to peace in Europe.

As a response of the Polish government to NATO’s demands, the Polish National Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz announced Poland’s military plans. Among them are an increase of Polish troops up to 150,000 by 2017 (100,000 troops in 2016), a plan for setting up brigades in each of the Poland’s provinces and recruitment of volunteers to join territorial defense forces.

Macierewicz justified his intentions due to “the event of a real threat to our (Poland’s) independence” adding that the “threat is real and it is coming from the Russian government”. Obviously, the NATO mission in Eastern Europe is not to provide peace and stabilization as it claims, but to set further deterioration of political relations with Russia and to provoke a war.

The Baltic States’ officials demonstrate pretty same behavior as the Polish authorities. For example, Lithuania President Dalia Grybauskaite is highly supported by the US and the NATO as she proclaims the NATO expansion and speaks about the Russian aggression in her public speeches. However, according to the Stockholm institute of research of peace problems, military expenses of Russia are $92 billion against $578bn of the US military expenses.

The NATO expansion in Eastern Europe would most likely put the entire EU into a bigger confrontation with Russia and would force the EU leaders to adopt the US political course. Will that be good for the EU future? The fact is: instead of looking for mythical threats and blind faith in NATO, Europe shall focus on its own values and conduct its own foreign policy that formed the European Union. Otherwise true European values may soon become the subject of nostalgia.

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