For 20 years, NATO security policy has been guided by flawed assumptions about Russia and the future of the West. Its leaders are now learning about those errors the hard way. As they scramble to respond to Russian aggression in Ukraine, they need to get back to NATO's core mission.
For 20 years, NATO and European security policy have been guided by four flawed strategic assumptions. First, Western leaders assumed that Russia had become a benign power and that inter-state threats to European security were therefore no longer a concern. Second, because NATO’s core mission -- collective defense -- was no longer a compelling reason to keep the alliance together, leaders argued that NATO needed to go “out of area or out of business.” NATO consequently expanded its membership and took on a new array of global missions.