Why Do We Still Have NATO?

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Why does a Cold War military alliance still exist today? What role does it play in Putin's cyber warfare campaigns?

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I think Putin gets far too much credit for what happens in the US, he wishes he had so much influence.

lostinthefogofwar

One slightly less cyclical view is it's a way of keeping the most powerful military nations in the world aligned, so avoiding another world war. How easily Yugoslavia and Ukraine/Russia slipped into war is perhaps a lesson to learn from.

Fiddling_while_Rome_burns

I come from Slovakia, and we in Central Europe definitely see the need of NATO. The things that happened to Ukraine and Georgia wouldn't have happened if they were a part of NATO. NATo is also constant saviour of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, because without it they would've ended up like Ukraine, because they have large minority populations (thank Stalin) as well. So if you think, that NATO exists only because of imperialism, you are dead wrong. There were mistakes made, of course but NATO is a concept crucial for existence of Slovakia, as well as Czech republic, Poland, Hungary and many more centre-eastern European countries that either are, or are planning to become part of NATO.

matkosova

NATO and Russia actually worked together in various areas from 1991 on. Seeing NATO still as an organisation opposed to Russia, is neither inevitable nor has it been the case all the time since the fall of the Soviet Union. Tensions have risen again since then, but that's a newer development after Russia again started to aggressively assert itself in its supposed "sphere of influence".
Also, "the Cold War was not about ideologies but about territory and influence" - hmm. Why not both? ;)

varana

It's just so nice to find a history focus YouTuber that is not just chilling for the right but actually talking about the history.

thewarzoneformerlyknownass

The thing is, Russia (/USSR) tried 3 (yes, THREE) times to join NATO, but it was always rejected right out the gate at the political level.

Roky

Why do we still have NATO? Because its members wanted and still want it around. It took a lot of the military concerns from european allies and provided the US with a lot of political clout in Europe. It also freed up time, energy and money as its members didn't have to constantly watch their backs and sides, like they had to in the pre-NATO era. This enabled them to forge ever closer economic and political ties, which is pretty much what the EU was set up for and provides to this day. So, NATO and the EU are the organisations that enabled their members to go on ahead with economic development, without constantly worrying about their neigbours military plans, trade policies and constant bickering about resources and their access to them.

Roky

"On both sides" sure. But one side is clearly better.

DeadMarine

Considering the countries of the former Warsaw Pact or the former SSR’s to be sacrosanct part of Russia’s sphere of influence may downplay the national identity of those countries, but for Russia, it is a necessity for their national security. Many of the countries on Russia’s immediate border occupy geographical positions that, from a military perspective, are more easily defensible. Ukraine’s western border falls on the Carpathian Mountains, and in Central Asia, many of the countries of the region also border mountain ranges such as the Tian Shan and Hindu Kush. Vladimir Putin has stated that the dissolution of the USSR was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, not because of any support for communism, but because the expansion of NATO into regions considered to be part of Russia’s sphere of influence has effectively breached this geographical line of defense. USAF personnel stationed in Estonia can now reach St. Petersburg in under three minutes, and should Ukraine choose to join NATO as was the concern in 2014, there would be US troops on the border of Russia’s heartland, with nothing but open plains between them and Moscow. This is the corridor that, for Russia, is historically both the least defensible and the most exploited, as seen by the Invasions of both Napoleon and Hitler.

TheKalihiMan

NATO bombarded my country in 1999. Three children were killed during the campaign.

lukamilenkovic

Oh man, surely this is not relevant anymore here on February 17th 2022 *nervous laughter*

arturo

A video on the Ukraine would be interesting. I feel a lot of the problems happening in the world have their origins in the wars in Georgia and then Ukraine. How much influence did/does the west assert in the conflicts?

adamATOM