Human Security Centre Human Rights and International Security Research
Dr Rowan Allport, a senior fellow at the Human Security Centre thinktank, tells IBTimes UK:
It is important to separate Nato’s core responsibly as an organisation focused on the collective defence of its members from the secondary, post-Cold War role it has adopted as a regional security actor.
At present, whilst there are many divisions amongst Nato states regarding the handling of the current crisis in Ukraine, there is no sign of any fundamental fracturing of the security guarantee membership of the organisation provides.
Allport says this is reflected in Nato’s recent actions, such as the Readiness Action Programme and deployment of forces to Baltic states.
However, there can be little doubt that is falling some way short in its regional security role. In part, this is because the challenge Russia presents is far larger than those faced in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya – Nato’s largest previous operations to date.
However, there is also an across-the-board lack of political resolve to confront security challenges amongst the key member nations that has not been seen in a generation.
At the very least, it would seem sensible that Nato, or more accurately the organisation’s core membership, should be enhancing their efforts to support the reform and training of Ukraine’s armed forces, which were hugely weakened by the corruption of Kiev’s previous pro-Russian government.
