Commentary
Beijing’s and Moscow’s lawlessness and collaborative belligerence threaten all sovereign nations in Europe and Asia.
We still have time to respond with a war-deterring diplomatic stroke: extending NATO’s Article 5 to committed nations in the Pacific and East Asia who already field NATO-ready military forces.
Background: The NATO treaty’s Article 5 exemplified the hard, clear-eyed diplomacy that won the Cold War. Cheekily known as the Three Musketeers Clause, Article 5 told the Soviet Union “that an armed attack against one or more of them (NATO members) … shall be considered an attack against them all.”
Each member would then take “action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain” NATO security. The enemy had to attack a member’s territory or member “forces, vessels or aircraft” operating “in or over” NATO territory….