The future of NATO and Russia: Identities and exclusion in Europe’s security

NATO has not adapted sufficiently to the new security environment. A reductionist interpretation of its identity as that of the western community stands in contradiction to the current European and global scenario, in which the majority of threats are shared by both members and non-members of the Alliance. The enlargement process has helped to consolidate NATO’s borders and its candidates as a line of political exclusion, thereby worsening relations with third countries (such as Russia), without obtaining, in exchange, a substantial increase in military security. We need to reconcile the organisation’s different identities, starting with the concept of indivisibility of security that emerged at the end of the Cold War, and to create more flexible structures, while including all the European actors capable of contributing to the fight against real threats.