NATO has suffered from the Georgian war, which it had provoked indirectly and to which it has not brought any solution. The weakness of the United States and the reassessment of Article 5 have once again given prominence to the debate on Atlantic decoupling—even if that term has rarely been used. The Alliance is henceforth obliged to play a minor role in which, finally, it has few real choices.
NATO and the Georgian Crisis
As we have noted before, the Bucharest summit (which was devoted to enlargement, and concerned notably Ukraine and Georgia) concluded in an indecisive way which left all possibilities open. These were:
• rapid integration into the organization;
• continuation of the current status; and
• a final abandonment of the possibility of integration.
The first helps to explain the attitude of the Georgian president, who attempted to force matters during the night of 7 August 2008. The second was that of the Western powers, who were none too keen to welcome new members. The third was that of Russia, which explains its reaction on 8 August.
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