Article 5, invoked once
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Asked whether Europe would ever take the initiative on ending the war in Ukraine, John Kiriakou said it would not while an American president was willing to lead, and then questioned whether the alliance had a remaining purpose at all. "You''ve got to ask yourself if NATO is really still necessary. I personally believe that it''s not."

The single invocation

The fact he uses to make the case is one he presents as a quiz. "What is the only time in the history of NATO, starting in 1948 to the present, where NATO was called upon to defend another NATO country from attack? ... It was September 11th. That was it. And NATO came to our defence." He does not treat the result as a vindication: "now, unfortunately, that meant going to Afghanistan to occupy Afghanistan. But that''s the only time."

The promise, and the expansions

The second half of the argument concerns credibility. "We have promised the Russians repeatedly, over the course of the last four presidents, that we would not continue to expand NATO to Russia''s borders, and then we''ve broken that promise repeatedly. Look at Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland. We just keep doing it over and over and over again, and we give the Russians no reason to trust us."

Who would lead it

On the question of European leadership he made the answer contingent on one man: "not under a Democratic president. Now, if Donald Trump becomes president again, he''s expressed such anti-NATO sentiment that I think the Europeans would want to take leadership of NATO. So long as there''s a Democrat in the White House, or a Republican who''s not named Donald Trump, then I think NATO is going to continue to look to the United States for leadership, and for the bulk of the NATO budget."

See also

- Ukraine as a proxy war
- Russia-Ukraine war origins
- Israel, Turkey, and NATO Article 5
- Major non-NATO ally status for Ukraine
- Donald Trump
