‘ If I can’t swallow you, I’ll crush you.’

Some NATO experts argued at the time that the ideal outcome of NATO’s expansion would be to integrate a “reformed” Russia into the European system, making Europe a “paradise of permanent peace.” But the ever- changing reality of Europe soon showed that was simply an illusion.

Former US president George Bush proposed, in 1989, the “Beyond Containment” strategy to promote the integration of the Soviet Union into the existing international system.

However, Bush’s successor, Bill Clinton, turned the strategic goals to “strengthen American global leadership” and prevent the emergence of a dominant power in Europe or Asia that poses a strategic threat to the US.

“If I can’t swallow you, I’ll crush you.” This is the strategic logic of the US toward any country that might potentially challenge its hegemony. Strategically, NATO wants to integrate Russia into the bloc and make Russia submit to American dominance of the global political and economic system, or NATO wants to break Russia down so that it can no longer fight back.

There is a very stubborn logic in the expansion of NATO, that is, the order of Western civilization represented by the US should be the order of Europe and even the world. Other countries must follow this logic, or they may become potential enemies of the US and the West.

The end of the Cold War reinforced Washington’s belief that the basic principles of “liberal democracy” that NATO has boasted to defend and protect can be introduced to the world as common norms by which all nations must live. This understanding divides the world simply into “democratic” and “undemocratic” factions. This stubborn logic by the US did not die with the Cold War. On the contrary, the US has only shown its eagerness in triggering regime changes in other countries and regions. This perception also brought up theories such as “the end of history.” Such logic also allows NATO, which calls itself a “defensive organization,” to wage wars, in violation of international law, against sovereign states

The goal of NATO’s expansion has gradually projected beyond Europe and directly to the Asia- Pacific region and the entire world.

Today, in the 2020s, we still have to ask one major question: How, if at all possible, can countries with different civilizations, ideologies, political systems, and historical and cultural traditions live together in peace?