Fear of Russia brings new purpose and unity to NATO, once again

“NATO is its member states, and it’s what allies make of it,” said Sophia Besch, a defense analyst in Berlin for the Centre for European Reform. “It’s not out of business because we didn’t let it, and we’ve changed its raison d’être to what are the major strategic concerns of the day.”

The old joke was that if NATO is the answer, what is the question? Ms. Besch responded: “We’ve changed the question over the years to make NATO the answer. And now we’re back at the old question again, where NATO is more comfortable.”