Who in NATO Is Ready for War?
Curtis L. Fox
On 24 February 2022, large numbers of Russian ground forces invaded Ukraine. The mass assault included almost two hundred thousand soldiers and constituted the bulk of Russia’s military expeditionary potential. A shockwave rolled through Europe as nations began to grapple with their own capacities to resist such overwhelming military force. The traditional great powers of Europe (France, the UK, and Germany) and regional powers like Poland all realized that they could not put equivalent forces in the field of any potential future battle.
Europe has been under joint Anglo-American protection since 1941. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill convened a council of war as the United States geared up for its entry into World War II. They negotiated the creation of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, which was a joint Anglo-American high command that would write grand strategy, negotiate implementation, and manage day-to-day operations in all theaters of war.1 The Americans benefited from hard-won British combat experience and know-how, while the British benefited from American resources and manpower. The Combined Chiefs of Staff demonstrated to both Washington and London that they were better together and often checked each other’s excesses and incompetence. The successful D-Day invasion of 6 June 1944 further proved the efficacy of an Anglo-American invasion of Europe from the sea, establishing the framework for how the Americans would understand their role in European security for the next ninety years.
Following World War II, American and British leaders watched with alarm as the Soviet Union established socialist puppet governments across the Eastern Bloc. On 4 April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded to check Soviet-Communist expansion in Europe. Amongst the founding members were the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal. Additionally, three of the four occupation zones of postwar Germany were administered by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.2 In May 1949, these western occupation zones were combined, founding the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).
https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/English-Edition-Archives/July-August-2024/Who-in-NATO-Is-Ready-for-War/
