By Rajan Menon
Vladimir Putin must be, to say the least, disappointed — and not merely because, nine months on, Russia emains mired in a war against Ukraine that he had expected to win rapidly. Contrary to his hopes, divergent national interests haven’t split the 30-country transatlantic alliance that has been supporting Kyiv. NATO, large and unwieldy, sometimes quarrelsome, has remained remarkably united.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization imposed the toughest sanctions ever on Russia, rushed critically important weaponry to Ukraine and supported a Ukrainian economy severely strained by the war.
Yet as the war drags on, tensions could arise in its ranks — there are signs already — over “burden-sharing.”
This term is typically used in discussions about relative defense spending within NATO, mainly by Americans who want Europeans to spend more. But eventually the Ukraine war could create discord over a different kind of burden-sharing: comparative contributions to assisting Ukraine.
This piece was originally published in The New York Times on November 17, 2022. Read more HERE.