HERTFORD, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 04: Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg greets US President Donald Trump as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President of France Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel look on during the annual NATO heads of government summit on December 4, 2019 in Watford, England. France and the UK signed the Treaty of Dunkirk in 1947 in the aftermath of WW2 cementing a mutual alliance in the event of an attack by Germany or the Soviet Union. The Benelux countries joined the Treaty and in April 1949 expanded further to include North America and Canada followed by Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. This new military alliance became the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The organisation grew with Greece and Turkey becoming members and a re-armed West Germany was permitted in 1955. This encouraged the creation of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact delineating the two sides of the Cold War. This year marks the 70th anniversary of NATO. (Photo by Steve Parsons - WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Last week was a reminder of a subject that looked set to define 2020 before the pandemic hit: Westlessness. The term was coined in the annual report of the Munich Security Conference. It referred to the way in which the old Western alliance, and particularly NATO, seemed to be fragmenting such that one could no longer talk about the “West” as a single entity. The term echoed Emmanuel Macron’s eye-catching description last November of NATO as “brain-dead”.
Several recent events serve as reminder of how true that was.
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