Aspirationally at least, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is transitioning from reassurance measures to a more serious deterrence posture on the Alliance’s “Eastern flank” vis-à-vis Russia. Decisions in this regard will be finalized down to the wire of NATO’s summit in Warsaw (July 8–9).
The pre-summit debates, however, focus narrowly on that flank’s northern part. Implicitly or inadvertently, Allied officials and analysts tend to equate NATO’s Eastern flank with Poland and the three Baltic States in the context of establishing a deterrence and defense posture. The evolving plans to station allied troops on the Eastern flank, exercise them, build infrastructure …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation