Yushchenko Weighs In

At The Washington Post. It’s remarkable — though understandable — how sober and controlled the language of the Ukrainian president appears beside that of the US’s most nominally pro-Ukrainian commentators. After all, Yushchenko must operate in the realm of reality and responsibility. So he presents NATO membership as the logical outgrowth of a broader commitment to the prudential practices captured in a complex latticework of effective, cooperative regional security institutions. As opposed, that is, to presenting NATO membership as the urgent and final hope for Russia’s next would-be morsel, or as a bit of punishment for what Russia’s done to Georgia.

(I may as well add here that Russia’s ongoing occupation of territory in Georgia proper is a big mistake worthy of big condemnation…though hardly, even still, the behavior of an out-of-control paranoid imperialist regime.)

Along lines like these, I’m not entirely sure that NATO membership for more countries, especially ex-Soviet ones, is really the huge deal most make it out to be. I was firmly against expanding NATO to Georgia and Ukraine this time around, but mainly because in the totality of the then-present circumstances, it was unnecessary, counterproductive, and problematic. France and Germany were right to recognize, however, that one day this might change, for a variety of reasons, and there’s no good reason to announce that NATO will never expand again. Nonetheless, there are natural boundaries at work in any future expansion plan. Obviously the aim of NATO is to set up a defensive alliance for Western civilization in Europe, so as to permanently prevent Europe from ever being the site of another world war. Well, not everybody gets to be a member of Western civilization in Europe, not even on an honorary/historical basis like Turkey.

Point is, Yushchenko’s argument is certainly colorable as sane and commonsensical from a Ukrainian perspective, along with several others, but as of now it doesn’t get the US where the US wants or needs to be. And oh yes — by ‘Ukrainian’ Yushchenko must mean western Ukrainian, because all those Russian-speakers on the eastern side are 100% not down with the program. Any NATO expansion, even under otherwise completely benign circumstances, must hinge upon at least the rough unity of a prospective member country’s people in favor of joining! Crazy idea, I know.