2011 Enlarging and setting fires
As a product of the Cold War, not only has NATO not withdrawn from the stage of history following the end of the Cold War, but instead it has continued to expand and grow. In order to justify its continued existence following the end of the Cold War, NATO updated its strategic concept many times over the decades since the demise of the Warsaw Pact, and the topics involved have also expanded from confronting military threats in the past to responding to terrorism and international and regional crises.
In 1999, NATO absorbed Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic – three former Warsaw Pact members – as its official members, breaking the long- term stable geostrategic pattern after WWII, and casting a shadow over the multipolar trend that emerged after the Cold War. Since then, NATO has expanded eastward five times, and its member countries have increased from the original 12 in 1949 to the 16 in 1999 to the current 30.
In the process of its expansion, NATO has also been “moving forward” toward
Russia, reaching Russia’s extremely sensitive “homeland in history,” – Ukraine – also known as the “heel of the Russian Empire” in Napoleon’s eyes.
Facing the looming squeeze, in December 2021, the Russian government was forced to draw its final “red line” in a draft security initiative submitted to NATO and the US. But since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the security concerns of Russia, which lost its hegemonic status, have never been a concern in the eyes of the US and NATO. The West has not only brutally rejected Russia’s draft security initiative, but also fanned the flames between Russia and Ukraine, leading to a military conflict between the two countries with deep historical ties.