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I fail to see any credible alternative to "dangling NATO membership". It's the eastern european countries themselves with historical experience with Russia that
by rini17 5y ago
I fail to see any credible alternative to "dangling NATO membership". It's the eastern european countries themselves with historical experience with Russia that clamored for NATO membership. In the US there are many influential children of eastern european immigrants that saw it as necessity too.
Even if it was possible to leave these countries in the cold "stfu we must not anger russia" that would do no good either, many of them would likely fail under such "denied future" circumstances.
- jmyeet 5y ago> I fail to see any credible alternative to "dangling NATO membership". You mean other than a policy of neutrality, much like Switzerland and Finland (and, to a lesser extent, Ireland) have pursued? This would mean training a defensive army with the clear message that the cost of invasion would be so high as to dissuade such imperialist endeavours. The Swiss developed this half a century ago [1]. This is not a new, untried or crazy idea. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Resistance_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Resistance_(book)
- T-A 5y ago> You mean other than a policy of neutrality, much like Switzerland and Finland (and, to a lesser extent, Ireland) have pursued? Out of those, only Finland borders Russia. And they are having plenty of second thoughts: https://yle.fi/news/3-12337202 https://yle.fi/news/3-12337202
- lolinder 5y agoThe Swiss and Finnish geographies are uniquely suited to holding out against a much larger force. Ukraine has to try to do that now, but that doesn't make it a good strategy for them to have planned on. (The other thing that makes Swiss neutrality work is that the bulk of the resources that they have that matter are human, and therefore hard to claim when conquered.)
- popularrecluse 5y agoAnd where do those two countries stand today on this issue.
- oblio 5y agoSwitzerland is highly mountainous and 2 out of its 3 big neighbors historically could not agree with anything the others proposed, which most likely meant that at least 1 of them would support the Swiss against the other 2 (at most) invaders. Scaling Swiss neutrality worldwide is unrealistic. Most countries don't have these kinds of luxuries.
- rini17 5y agoDon't cherry pick - Yugoslavia initially pursued it, too. And there are similar ethnic/religious tensions all over eastern europe, but they were not acted upon when western integration was available.