Current Event 12-2

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/europe/nato-montenegro-membership-invitation/index.html


My article is about the invitation to Montenegro to join NATO. The title is “NATO formally invites Montenegro to join alliance, rankling Russia.” I got the article from cnn.com. NATO was formed in the midst of the Cold War as a defensive alliance against the Soviet Union. Now, the alliance consists of 28 countries. Although the alliance claims to be a defensive alliance that is a threat to no one in particular, Russia has still been angered by the invitation to Montenegro. Russia has threatened to end cooperation with Montenegro if they decide to join the alliance. These events are important because a war between Russia and NATO would surely be the most destructive war in the history of mankind. During the Cold War, when communist countries and free countries were at a standoff, war was prevented by the principle of MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction. The US and Soviet Union both had enough nuclear weapons to destroy all life on earth several times over, and, because neither country was willing to destroy itself in order to destroy their enemy, war never happened. Now, tensions between Russia and NATO have greatly de-escalated, but the recent conflict in Syria has been heating up relations as the rivals are supporting different sides of the civil war. This invitation to Montenegro has already angered Russia, and if Montenegro joins the wedge between NATO and Russia will be driven deeper, increasing the chances of a military conflict in the future. This event impacts the world because a war between Russia and NATO could very easily become a nuclear war, which would result in the end of the human race and most life on earth. No one wants this to happen, and this is the strongest incentive for the two sides to try and solve conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. The world has watched the US and Russia battle each other through proxy wars and propaganda campaigns for over half a century, but the two countries have never directly been involved in a military conflict as far as anyone knows, other than a few skirmishes between air forces. If war could be prevented in the later half of the twentieth century, then surely it can be prevented now, when so much progress has been made in mending relations between Russia and the US.

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