NATO: Mean Girls Edition
The BABES BLUF dives into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Pictures: Tamara Bellis
Date: February 1st, 2022
BLUF: Tracing its roots back to 1947, perhaps the most well-known and effective alliance has been the political and military allegiance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). From peacekeeping following the Bosnia and Herzegovina war, to invoking Article 5 to defend the US following the 9/11 attacks, NATO has withheld the test of time. Its membership has expanded from 12 to 30 — and now Ukraine is knocking. Ukraine’s entry into the alliance, however, won’t come without challenge. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin sees Ukraine’s quest for NATO membership as a risk to his country’s own security and has positioned massive troops at the border in an effort to force the international community’s hand to fold. Will Washington come to Ukraine’s aid? The answer, as usual, is complicated.
The world is a lot like a high school. Different countries have different cliques and some of those cliques have seemingly more power than others — the cool kids if you will, like NATO. Some people are jealous of this clique, others hate it, and a few want to join it. But the dynamics of sitting at the “Plastics” table in Mean Girls are tricky and result from time to time in people jumping through hoops… not unlike joining one of the most powerful military and political alliances in the world.
These days, NATO has been making sure everyone is aware of how popular it is by keeping itself busy in the headlines amidst the bustle of Russian troops at the Ukrainian border. But before we inevitably get into that, let’s roll it back to the beginning to understand what NATO is, how it came to be, who sits at the table, and see if all that helps explain why Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has stationed troops at the Russia–Ukraine border.
https://inkstickmedia.com/nato-mean-girls-edition/
