Jeremy Corbyn and NATO

Below is an old draft I wrote over a year ago. Enjoy!

Jeremy Corbyn’s admission that he believed it was a mistake to admit Poland, and other Warsaw Pact nations into NATO is a clear failure of the Labour leader to fully understand the recent history of Europe, and one of my only complaints about the left-wing politician.

For example when Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania applied to join NATO following the collapse of the Soviet Union, they had plenty of good reasons to apply for membership of the defensive alliance. In the 19th and 20th century forces of the Russian Empire and subsequent Soviet Union had invaded and brutally occupied these territories, bringing forth a regime of cultural, economic and religious repression that deeply scarred the nations and gave them an understandable reason to join NATO.

Corbyn also said that these states should've accepted a policy of non-alignment and acted as a sort of buffer state between the Russian Federation and NATO member states. In that regard we have the perfect example of what happens to a so-called non-aligned state. In 1994 Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom entered into a political agreement (Budapest Memorandum) solidifying Ukraine's status as a non-aligned nation in return for its ascension to the treaty of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, so how did that stand up to the test?

In 2013 the Ukrainian government was set to sign an association agreement with the European Union, however then President Yanukovych rejected the agreement, signing a similar deal with the Russian government instead. Following this news a small-group of protesters began occupying independence square in Kyiv, the subsequent heavy-handed tactics of the security forces led to the movement rapidly ballooning in size and the frequent clashes in Kyiv and other cities led to fear that the country could collapse into a state of civil war. In a last-minute effort the European Union met with then President Yanukovych and appeared to strike a deal that would resolve the current crisis, however for unknown reasons the Ukrainian leader fled the country alongside several top officials from the government. As their leader had abandoned his constitutional duties and threatened the country with an imminent power vacuum  the Ukrainian parliament decided to form a transitional government between all opposition parties. In keeping with the non-aligned status of Ukraine. Russia should have grudgingly accepted the transitional government and simply urged the administration to carry out new elections as possible, however since that date the Russian Federation has annexed Ukrainian territory and has been caught sending troops and equipment to anti-government forces currently fighting against the democratically elected government in Kyiv.

On top of these rather flagrant violations of international law the Russian government has also been pressuring the Baltic States. In 2014 Eston Kohver, an Estonian intelligence official was attacked and forcibly taken across the border and after a brief kangaroo trial thrown behind bars for fifteen years, and this is on top of the usual air incursions by Russian aircraft that in the past have posed a threat to civil aviation. NATO might not be perfect but to those in Eastern Europe it is a better alternative to the failed policy of non-alignment.