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Subject: International Relations

  • OPEC+ seeks consensus on oil output

    OPEC+ has failed to reach a deal on oil output policy because the United Arab Emirates blocked some aspects of the pact.

    About OPEC

    • OPEC is a permanent, intergovernmental organization, created at the Baghdad Conference in 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
    • It aims to manage the supply of oil in an effort to set the price of oil in the world market, in order to avoid fluctuations that might affect the economies of both producing and purchasing countries.
    • It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
    • OPEC membership is open to any country that is a substantial exporter of oil and which shares the ideals of the organization.
    • Today OPEC is a cartel that includes 14 nations, predominantly from the middle east whose sole responsibility is to control prices and moderate supply.

    What is OPEC+?

    • The non-OPEC countries which export crude oil along with the 14 OPECs are termed as OPEC plus countries.
    • OPEC plus countries include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
    • Saudi and Russia, both have been at the heart of a three-year alliance of oil producers known as OPEC Plus — which now includes 11 OPEC members and 10 non-OPEC nations — that aims to shore up oil prices with production cuts.

    Must read:

    [Burning Issue] Oil Prices and OPEC+

    Concerns for India

    • Rising oil prices are posing fiscal challenges for India, where heavily-taxed retail fuel prices have touched record highs, threatening the demand-driven recovery.
    • India imports about 84% of its oil and relies on West Asian supplies to meet over three-fifths of its demand.
    • As one of the largest crude-consuming countries, India is concerned that such actions by producing countries have the potential to undermine consumption-led recovery.
    • This would hurt consumers, especially in our price-sensitive market.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.The term ‘West Texas Intermediate’, sometimes found in news, refers to a grade of (CSP 2020):

    (a) Crude oil

    (b) Bullion

    (c) Rare earth elements

    (d) Uranium

  • OECD-G20 Inclusive Framework Tax Deal

    India has joining the OECD-G20 framework for a global minimum tax.

    Must read

    What is Global Minimum Corporate Tax?

    What is this tax deal?

    • The proposed solution consists of two components:
    1. Pillar One is about the reallocation of an additional share of profit to the market jurisdictions and
    2. Pillar Two consists of minimum tax and subject to tax rules
    • Some significant issues including share of profit allocation and scope of subject to tax rules, remain open and need to be addressed.
    • Further, the technical details of the proposal will be worked out in the coming months and a consensus agreement is expected by October.

    Why did India join?

    • The principles underlying the solution vindicates India’s stand for a greater share of profits for the markets, consideration of demand-side factors in profit allocation.
    • There is a need to seriously address the issue of cross border profit shifting and need for the subject to tax rules to stop treaty shopping.
    • India is in favour of a consensus solution that is simple to implement and simple to comply with.
    • At the same time, the solution should result in the allocation of meaningful and sustainable revenue to market jurisdictions, particularly for developing and emerging economies.

    What is Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)?

    • BEPS refers to corporate tax planning strategies used by multinationals to “shift” profits from higher-tax jurisdictions to lower-tax jurisdictions.
    • It thus “erodes” the “tax base” of the higher-tax jurisdictions.
    • Corporate tax havens offer BEPS tools to “shift” profits to the haven, and additional BEPS tools to avoid paying taxes within the haven.
    • It is alleged that BEPS is associated mostly with American technology and life science multinationals.

  • India-Africa relations

    The article deals with India’s strategy to deepen the ties with African nations and suggest a critical review of the implementation of India’s strategy.

    Need for review of India’s foreign policy for Africa

    • Africa is considered a foreign policy priority by India.
    •  Even as the COVID-19 era began in March 2020, New Delhi took new initiatives to assist Africa through prompt despatch of medicines and later vaccines.
    • But now the policy implementation needs a critical review.

    Four factors that explain need for a review of policy implementation

    1) Declining trade

    • Declining trade: Bilateral trade valued at $55.9 billion in 2020-21, fell by $10.8 billion compared to 2019-20, and $15.5 billion compared to the peak year of 2014-15.
    • Decline in investment: India’s investments in Africa too saw a decrease from $3.2 billion in 2019-20 to $2.9 billion in 2020-21.
    • The composition of the India-Africa trade has not changed much over the two decades.
    • Mineral fuels and oils, (essentially crude oil) and pearls, precious or semi-precious stones are the top two imports accounting for over 77% of our imports from Africa.
    • India’s top five markets today are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and Togo.
    • The countries from which India imports the most are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Angola and Guinea.

    2) Covid impact

    • COVID-19 has brought misery to Africa.
    • As on June 24, 2021, Africa registered 5.2 million infections and 1,37,855 deaths.
    • A recent World Health Organization survey revealed that 41 African countries had fewer than 2,000 working ventilators among them.
    • Despite these shortcomings, Africa has not done so badly.
    •  Sadly though, with much of the world caught up in coping with the novel coronavirus pandemic’s ill effects, flows of assistance and investment to Africa have decreased.
    • While China has successfully used the pandemic to expand its footprint by increasing the outflow of its vaccines.
    • Unfortunately India’s ‘vax diplomacy’ has suffered a setback. 

    3) Global competition for influence

    • Africa experienced a sharpened international competition, known as ‘the third scramble’, in the first two decades of the 21st century.
    • A dozen nations from the Americas, Europe and Asia have striven to assist Africa in resolving the continent’s political and social challenge.
    • These nations, in turn, stand to benefit from Africa’s markets, minerals, hydrocarbons and oceanic resources, and thereby to expand their geopolitical influence.

    4) Geopolitical tensions in Asia

    • Geopolitical tensions in Asia and the imperative to consolidate its position in the Indo-Pacific region have compelled New Delhi to concentrate on its ties with the United Kingdom, the EU, and the Quad powers, particularly the U.S.
    • Consequently, the attention normally paid to Africa lost out.
    • This must now change.

    Way forward for India-Africa relation

    • For mutual benefit, Africa and India should remain optimally engaged.
    • The third India-Africa Forum Summit was held in 2015.
    • The fourth summit, pending since last year, should be held as soon as possible, even if in a virtual format.
    • Fresh financial resources for grants and concessional loans to Africa must be allocated, as previous allocations stand almost fully exhausted.
    • The promotion of economic relations demands a higher priority.
    • Industry representatives should be consulted about their grievances and challenges in the COVID-19 era.
    • To impart a 21st-century complexion to the partnership, developing and deepening collaborations in health, space and digital technologies is essential.
    • India should continue its role in peacekeeping in Africa, in lending support to African counter-terrorism operations, and contributing to African institutions through training and capacity-enhancing assistance.
    • To overcome the China challenge in Africa, increased cooperation between India and its international allies, rates priority.
    • The recent India-EU Summit has identified Africa as a region where a partnership-based approach will be followed.
    •  When the first in-person summit of the Quad powers is held in Washington, a robust partnership plan for Africa should be announced. 

    Conclusion

    India should review the policy implementation and make changes in line with the changing geopolitical realities.

  • Places in news: Black Sea

    Russia accused Britain of spreading lies over a warship confrontation in the Black Sea.

    What is the issue?

    • Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a move that was not recognized by most countries in the world.
    • Russia has frequently responded at NATO warships visits near Crimea, casting them as destabilizing.
    • NATO members Turkey, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria are in the Black Sea, but warships from the US, UK and other NATO allies also have made increasingly frequent visits in a show of support to Ukraine.

    About Black Sea

    • The Black Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia; east of the Balkans (Southeast Europe), south of the East European Plain in Eastern Europe, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia in Western Asia.
    • It is supplied by major rivers, principally the Danube, Dnieper, and Don.
    • The watersheds of many countries drain into the sea beyond the six that share its coast.
    • The Black Sea is bordered by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

    Must answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following pairs:

    Sea

    Bordering country
    1. Adriatic Sea Albania
    2. Black Sea Croatia
    3. Caspian Sea Kazakhstan
    4. Mediterranean Sea Morocco
    5. Red Sea Syria

    Which of the pair given above are correctly matched? (CSP 2020)

    (a) 1, 2 and 4 only

    (b) 1, 3 and 4 only

    (c) 2 and 5 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

  • 60 Years of Antarctic Treaty

    The 1959 Antarctic Treaty (wef 1961) recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.

    Antarctic Treaty

    • The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements are collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS).
    • It regulates international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth’s only continent without a native human population.
    • For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude.
    • The treaty entered into force in 1961 and currently has 54 parties.
    • The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation, and bans military activity on the continent.
    • The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War.
    • India is a signatory of this treaty since 1983.

    Why is it significant?

    • Negotiated during the middle of the Cold War by 12 countries with Antarctic interests, it remains the only example of a single treaty that governs a whole continent.
    • It is also the foundation of a rules-based international order for a continent without a permanent population.

    Key provisions

    • The treaty is remarkably short and contains only 14 articles.
    • Principal provisions include promoting the freedom of scientific research, the use of the continent only for peaceful purposes, and the prohibition of military activities, nuclear tests and the disposal of radioactive waste.

    What the treaty says about territorial claims

    • The most important provision of the treaty is Article IV, which effectively seeks to neutralise territorial sovereignty in Antarctica.
    • For the Antarctic territorial claimants, this meant a limit was placed on making any new claim or enlargement of an existing claim.
    • Likewise, no formal recognition was given to any of the seven territorial claims on the continent, by Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom.
    • Russia, the United States and China — signatories with significant Antarctic interests who have not formally made territorial claims — are also bound by the limitations of Article IV.
    • And one sector of Antarctica is not subject to the claim of any country, which effectively makes it the last unclaimed land on earth.
    • The treaty also put a freeze on any disputes between claimants over their territories on the continent.

    How the treaty has expanded

    • Though the compact has held for 60 years, there have been tensions from time to time.
    • Argentina and the UK, for instance, have overlapping claims to territory on the continent.
    • When combined with their ongoing dispute over the nearby Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, their Antarctic relationship remains frosty.
    • Membership of the treaty has grown in the intervening years, with 54 signatories today.

    Where to from here?

    • While the Antarctic Treaty has been able to successfully respond to a range of challenges, circumstances are radically different in the 2020s compared to the 1950s.
    • Antarctica is much more accessible, partly due to technology but also climate change.
    • More countries now have substantive interests in the continent than the original 12.
    • Some global resources are becoming scarce, especially oil.

    Answer this PYQ:

    Q.The term ‘IndARC’, sometimes seen in the news, is the name of:

    (a) An indigenously developed radar system inducted into Indian Defence

    (b) India’s satellite to provide services to the countries of Indian Ocean Rim

    (c) A scientific establishment set up by India in Antarctic region

    (d) India’s underwater observatory to scientifically study the Arctic region

    Back2Basics: Indian Antarctic Program

    • The Indian Antarctic Program is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional program under the control of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences.
    • It was initiated in 1981 with the first Indian expedition to Antarctica.
    • The program gained global acceptance with India’s signing of the Antarctic Treaty and subsequent construction of the Dakshin Gangotri Antarctic research base in 1983 superseded by the Maitri base from 1989.
    • The newest base commissioned in 2012 is Bharati, constructed out of 134 shipping containers.

    Various missions

    In 1981 the Indian flag unfurled for the first time in Antarctica, marking the start of Southern Ocean expeditions under the environmental protocol of the Antarctic Treaty (1959).

    (1) Dakshin Gangotri

    The first permanent settlement was built in 1983 and named Dakshin Gangotri. In 1989 it was excavated and is being used again as supply base and transit camp. It was decommissioned in the year 1990 after half of it got buried under the ice.

    (2) Maitri

    The second permanent settlement, Maitri, was put up in 1989 on the Schirmacher Oasis and has been conducting experiments in geology, geography and medicine. India built this station close to a freshwater lake around Maitri known as Lake Priyadarshini.

    (3) Bharati

    Located beside Larsmann Hill at 69°S, 76°E, Bharati is established in 2015.  This newest research station for oceanographic research will collect evidence of continental breakup to reveal the 120-million-year-old ancient history of the Indian subcontinent.

    (4) India Post Office in Antarctica

    It was established in the year 1984 during the third Indian expedition to Antarctica. It was located at Dakshin Gangotri. This post office was indeed situated in a stunning location and it was more than just a post office. An interesting fact about this place is that as many as 10,000 letters were posted and canceled in this post office in total in the first year of its establishment.

  • Bhutan’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) Programme

    Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) programme has been recently launched.

    TIWB Program

    • TIWB is a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
    • India was chosen as the Partner Jurisdiction and has provided the Tax Expert for this programme.
    • It aims to aid Bhutan in strengthening its tax administration by transferring technical know-how and skills to its tax auditors, and through sharing of best audit practices.
    • The focus of the programme will be in the area of International Taxation and Transfer Pricing.
    • This programme is another milestone in the continued cooperation between India and Bhutan and India’s continued and active support for South-South cooperation.

  • Why does China consistently beat India on soft power?

    The article compares India with China in terms of soft-power both countries exert based on the measures produced by Lowy Institute in Australia.

    What is soft power?

    • Joseph Nye, who gave us the notion of soft power, suggests that it consists of foreign policy, cultural and political influence.
    • Foreign policy influence comes from the legitimacy and morality of one’s dealings with other countries.
    • Cultural influence is based on others’ respect for one’s culture.
    • Political influence is how much others are inspired by one’s political values.
    • Soft power is difficult to measure.

    The Lowy Institute in Australia has produced various measures which correspond roughly to foreign policy influence, cultural influence and political influence.

    1) India’s foreign policy influence

    • In diplomatic influence, overall, India ranks sixth and China ranks first among 25 Asian powers.
    • On networks, India nearly matches China in the number of regional embassies it has but is considerably behind in the number of embassies worldwide (176 to 126).
    • Multilaterally, India matches China in terms of regional memberships, but, crucially, its contributions to the UN capital budget are completely dwarfed by Chinese contributions (11.7 per cent to 0.8 per cent of the total).
    • In surveys of foreign policy leadership, ambition, and effectiveness, China ranks first or fourth on four measures while India ranks between fourth and sixth in Asia.

    2) Cultural influence

    • Lowy’s overall measure of cultural influence ranks India in fourth place and China in second place in Asia.
    •  Cultural influence is then divided into three elements, of which “cultural projection” and “information flows” are the most important.
    • In cultural projection, India scores better on Google searches abroad of its newspapers and its television/radio broadcasts.
    • India also exports more of its “cultural services” defined as “services aimed at satisfying cultural interests or needs”.
    • China does better on several other indicators.
    • For instance, India has only nine brands in the list of the top 500 global brands whereas China lists 73.
    • On the number of UNESCO World Heritage sites, India has 37 while China has 53.
    • Respect for the Indian passport also lags.
    • Chinese citizens can travel visa-free to 74 countries while Indians can only do so to 60.
    • In terms of information flows, in 2016–17, India hosted a mere 24,000 Asian students in tertiary education institutions whereas China hosted 2,25,000.
    • On total tourist arrivals from all over the world, India received 17 million, while China received 63 million.

    3) Political influence

    • In 2017 the two were not ranked that far apart in political influence.
    • The governance effectiveness index shows India scoring in the top 43 per cent countries worldwide and ranked 12th and China scoring in the top 32 per cent and ranked 10th.
    • On “political stability and absence of violence/terrorism”, India ranked 21st, and China ranked 15th.

    Consider the question “What do you understand by the term soft-power? How would you assess India’s soft-power potential in terms of various parameters?”

    Conclusion

    Soft-power theorists suggest that the ability to persuade rests on the power of attraction. We in India may think we are more attractive than China. The numbers show otherwise.

  • What is Chicago Convention of 1944?

    A private commercial flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk by a MiG-29 fighter jet of Belarus.  The incident received considerable global attention.

    How justified was Belarus in taking such a decision?

    • The answer lies at the junction of Belarus’s domestic laws as a sovereign country and international laws governing the action that states can legitimately take to deal with threats to security, real or perceived.
    • The issue of the use of military aircraft to neutralize potential threats posed by civilian aircraft acquired a different kind of urgency in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001.
    • Generally speaking, international law grants sovereignty to nations over their airspace as it does in territorial waters.

    The Chicago Convention of 1944

    • The Convention on International Civil Aviation, better known as the Chicago Convention of 1944, to which Belarus is a signatory state, prohibits any unlawful intervention against a civilian aircraft.
    • At the same time, it has various provisions under Article 9 which permit a sovereign state the right to impose restrictions.
    • This includes enforced landings at a designated airport in its territory, in “exceptional circumstances or during a period of emergency, or in the interest of public safety”.
    • Once a flight has landed, Article 16 provides the host country the right to board/search the aircraft.
    • This is probably the clause that provided cover for the local authorities to board Mr. Morales’s aircraft in Austria in 2013.
    • But the Chicago Convention applies only to civilian aircraft of the contracting parties.

    Other such laws

    • International law might also have to be examined in light of the International Air Services Transit Agreement (IASTA), also concluded in Chicago in 1944.
    • According to this agreement, contracting states grant to one another the freedom of air transit in respect of scheduled international air services, that is, the privilege to fly across territories without landing.
    • Belarus is not a signatory of IASTA.

  • Russia-China Relations and its effects on India-Russia Relations

    The article highlights Russia’s increasing inclinations towards China and its implications for India.

    Context

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently asserted that both the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, are “responsible” enough to solve issues between their countries, while underlining the need to debar any “extra-regional power” to interfere in the process.

    Implications for India-Russia ties

    • By this remark, Russia expects India to give up all efforts to reverse Beijing’s encroachment strategies.
    • The remarks can only be seen as reinforcing China’s claim that the Quadrilateral or Quad is aimed at containing China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
    • Russia’s continued criticism of the Indo-Pacific and the Quad suggests the divergent perspectives of India and Russia on how to deal with China’s rise to global prominence.
    • While India needs Russia’s partnership for its defence needs, India cannot endorse the Russian perspective on the Indo-Pacific and the Quad
    • The Russian attitude toward China’s growing power and influence will be the touchstone of Russia’s relations with India.
    • Russia has rejected the Indo-Pacific construct in favour of the Asia-Pacific on the ground that the first is primarily an American initiative designed to contain both China and Russia.
    • With the rise of populist nationalism amidst the decline of globalisation, the resolution of the Sino-Indian boundary dispute appears a difficult task.

    Background of India’s balancing strategies

    • Following the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), India soon realised Russia was much weaker than the erstwhile USSR and incapable of helping India balance potential threats from Beijing. 
    • On the other hand, Russia began to cast Moscow as the leader of a supposed trilateral grouping of Russia-India-China against a U.S.-led unipolar world.
    • Russia became an early proponent of the ‘strategic triangle’ to bring together the three major powers.
    • India’s fear of the unipolar moment too made it easier for India to become part of this initiative.
    • But China’s dismissive attitude toward Indian capabilities, coupled with an emerging China-Pakistan nexus, prevented the success of this trilateral.
    • India, instead, invested its diplomatic energies in rapprochement with the United States.
    • Thus, India decided to get integrated in the economic order it once denounced.
    • Economic liberalisation also allowed India to buy sophisticated weapons from a wider global market that included suppliers such as Israel and France.
    • As the logic of intensive engagement with the West was effectively established, strategic partnership with the U.S. was a logical corollary.
    • India has been searching for other major powers to balance against China as it does not have the sufficient means for hard balancing.
    • India has deepened its ties with Japan and Australia in a way that is close to soft balancing. 
    •  among all of India’s balancing efforts, the stupendous growth in ties with the U.S. has been the greatest source of concern for China which views the India-U.S. rapprochement as containment.

    Way forward for India-Russia ties

    • While other powers such as France, Australia, Japan and Russia will have an impact on the emerging maritime structures of the Indo-Pacific region, it is the triangular dynamic between India, China and the U.S. that is going to be the most consequential.
    • Russia is yet to realise that it will gain immensely from the multilateralism that the Indo-Pacific seeks to promote.
    • Being China’s junior partner only undermines Moscow’s great-power ambitions.
    • Given Russia’s preoccupation with ‘status’ rivalry with the U.S., Russia’s view of India-China relations seems understandable.
    • But there is a danger in permitting it to harden into a permanent attitude as an increasingly pro-Beijing Russia might adopt more aggressive blocking of India’s policy agendas.
    • That is why India is particularly interested in a normalisation of relations between Washington and Moscow.
    • The normalisation of relations between the U.S. and Russia will help India steer ties among the great powers.

    India-China ties

    • Non-alignment, painful memories of colonial subjugation, opposition to great-power hegemony, and strong beliefs in sovereignty and strategic autonomy have been the key influencers in shaping India’s and China’s engagement with each other as well as the western world.
    •  But this has begun to change as Beijing is asserting its hegemony over Asia.
    • In such circumstances, multilateral forums such as the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have little practical value for Indian diplomacy.
    • Without China’s reciprocity, options before India are limited.
    • The response cannot be just symbolic or rhetorical. The absence of any material evidence of reciprocity is bound to doom an attempt at Sino-Indian rapprochement.

    Conclusion

    China is undoubtedly the most powerful actor in its neighbourhood but it cannot simply have its way in shaping Asia’s new geopolitics.

  • NATO and China

    In a communiqué issued following the June 14 summit of its member-states in Brussels, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), for the first time, explicitly described China as a security risk.

    Try answering this question:

    Q.NATO has been an ideal vehicle for power-projection around the world by the US. Critically comment.

    China as a global threat

    • China has never figured in NATO summit declarations before, except for a minor reference in 2019 to the “opportunities and challenges” it presented.
    • But China’s stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to NATO security.
    • China has reacted sharply. It has urged NATO to view China’s development rationally, stop exaggerating various forms of China threat theory.
    • The other two threats identified by the NATO communiqué are on predictable lines: Russia and terrorism.

    Focus over two nations

    • There is a significant difference, however, between a strategic focus on countering Russia and casting China as a “systemic challenge”.
    • This goes back to NATO’s founding mandate and subsequent history.

    What is NATO, btw?

    • NATO, the planet’s largest — and largest-ever — military alliance, was formed in 1949 by 12 Allied powers to counter the massive Soviet armies stationed in Eastern and Central Europe after Second World War.
    • According to Paul-Henri Spaak, the second Secretary-General of NATO, it was, ironically enough, Joseph Stalin who is the true father of NATO.
    • It was Stalin’s overreach — especially with the Berlin blockade of 1948-49 and the orchestrated coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948 — that convinced a diverse set of war-ravaged European nations to come together under an American security blanket.
    • The collective defence principle enshrined in NATO’s Article V states that “an attack against one ally is considered as an attack against all allies”.
    • The formation of NATO, and its Soviet counterpart, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955, inaugurated the Cold War era.

    NATO and its relevance now

    • NATO was completely successful in its mission of protecting the “Euro-Atlantic area” from Soviet expansion and preventing war between the two superpowers.
    • When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, questions were raised about NATO’s relevance and future.
    • Since the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) became irrelevant when the Communist bloc disappeared, one cannot justify the continuation of a military alliance formed to protect Europe from Communist expansion.

    Post-Cold War era mandate of NATO

    • Its bureaucracy succeeded in refashioning NATO for the post-Cold war era.
    • The refashioning rested on a paradigm shift — from collective defence, which implied a known adversary, to collective security, which is open-ended, and might require action against any number of threats.
    • The threat included unknown ones and non-state actors.
    • In other words, the elimination of one threat to Europe — communist Russia — did not necessarily mean that security risks to Europe have vanished.

    Why dismantle a beneficial arrangement

    • Another factor in the persistence of NATO is that, like all successful alliances, it has been a mutually beneficial arrangement.
    • For Europe, it was an attractive bargain where, in exchange for a marginal loss in autonomy, it enjoyed absolute security at a cheap price.
    • Not having to spend massively on defence allowed Europe to focus on building powerful economies and invest its surplus in a strong welfare state.
    • NATO also offered the added bonus of keeping Germany down — historically a major factor for peace and stability in the region.

    An effective American weapon

    • For the US, NATO has been an ideal vehicle for power projection around the world — in places beyond the Euro-Atlantic area, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
    • It views NATO as a tool to ensure the primacy of American interests across the globe.
    • Unsurprisingly, NATO’s post-Cold War role has evolved in tandem with U.S. foreign policy priorities.
    • The NATO doctrine of “enlargement”, which Russia calls “expansion”, is essentially about extending the American military footprint by bringing in new members.
    • That is how NATO’s membership today stands at 30, having added 14 members between 1999 and 2020.

    The final truth

    • The Biden administration wants to mobilize NATO member-states behind its larger objective of containing China.
    • NATO’s European member states may view China as an economic rival and adversary, but they are unconvinced by the American line that it is an outright security threat.
    • This line also, in a way, points to the underlying logic behind NATO’s persistence in the post-Soviet world.
    • Unlike the Soviet Union, China offers no alternative vision of society that could make Western capitalism insecure.
    • In fact, its own economy is already deeply integrated into Western markets. China, nonetheless, is perceived as posing a ‘threat’.
    • It remains to be seen how far an ageing Europe would be willing to commit itself to a strategic path that prefers confrontation to collaboration like the US.

    Also read:

    India & NATO