fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

The Craziest Idea for NATO Expansion Yet

Carlos Alberto Montaner takes zeal for NATO expansion to new, absurd lengths: President Juan Manuel Santos proposes to bring Colombia into NATO, even if it is through the back door. I think it’s a responsible initiative. I assume that no member of the alliance takes this idea seriously, but it’s still extraordinary that it would […]

Carlos Alberto Montaner takes zeal for NATO expansion to new, absurd lengths:

President Juan Manuel Santos proposes to bring Colombia into NATO, even if it is through the back door. I think it’s a responsible initiative.

I assume that no member of the alliance takes this idea seriously, but it’s still extraordinary that it would be seriously proposed. Why would a country so far removed from both Europe and North America even want to join? Further NATO expansion in Europe seems senseless and unnecessary to me, but I can at least understand why Georgia might want to belong. Colombia is more than capable of defending itself against any of its neighbors. When tensions between Venezuela and Colombia escalated a few years back, it became clear that Venezuela and its military were in no condition to fight, and it is doubtful that the new Venezuelan leadership with a host of far more pressing internal problems would invite its own ruin by openly attacking its neighbor. If the other members of the alliance were crazy enough to agree to this idea, Colombia would probably end up assuming new obligations in whatever new “out of area” wars NATO chooses to fight. What’s more, NATO membership for Colombia would be completely redundant. Colombia is already a member of the Rio Treaty, which requires its members to treat an attack on any other member as an attack on them all.

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here