Hysteria Over Trump’s NATO Stance Fuels Predictions of West’s Demise

Analysts See West 'Unraveling' Without Hostility to Russia

Daily NATO warnings to President-elect Trump against making any serious challenges to the alliance’s status quo have picked up a momentum of their own, with NATO-friendly analysts now predicting the imminent collapse of “the West” in general over Trump’s election.

The concern over Trump centers both on his call for other member nations to pay more of the cost for their own defense, and his questions about the alliance’s relevance in the post-Cold War era. The Clinton campaign’s portrayal of Trump as a “Russian puppet” only added fuel to the speculation he would undermine NATO’s status as an alliance inherently hostile to Russia.

The Cold War set up the narrative of East versus West so strongly that it appears to have given the impression, at least among some analysts, that NATO is the equivalent of the West, despite the puzzling implication that the West’s “survival” hinges so heavily on its hostile military buildups in Eastern Europe, in territory that was decidedly part of the “East” during the Cold War.

Either way, analysts are still falling back on the assumption that Russia’s invasion of NATO territory is imminent, despite years of such predictions not panning out, and NATO leadership eager to scare the Trump Administration into line are doing nothing to undermine that misconception.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.