Two events, whose timing may have been coincidental, highlight the complex challenges confronting the west. The first was Brexit – whereby, after 43 years, the UK decided to leave the EU on 23 June via a nationwide referendum. The second was the biennial NATO summit in Warsaw that concluded on 9 July and focused on the perceived security threat from Russia.
The UK, along with the U.S., was one of the staunchest votaries of NATO’s eastward expansion. In an irony of history, the haste to expand NATO to the borders of Russia and absorb the less developed East European economies into …read more