And then there was Afghanistan, where we collectively really left a disastrous impression. I would argue he is still not really up to par for a strategic confrontation. Chancellor Scholtz was just elected and started with a completely different agenda. Biden’s election, who I don’t think actually impressed. If you start building pontoon bridges, bring in the equipment to cross rivers, big time blood reserves, this is nothing you do for a military exercise.įrom a broader perspective, I think he just thought that it was a good and appropriate moment because we were politically so weak. I didn’t have all the details, but what I saw that was not just a show of force, it was really something to press ahead with military preparations.
What they saw and what I saw pretty much overlapped. I belong to those who believe that Russia’s war against Ukraine started back in 2014, that was the first time he crossed the red line big time.Ĭoming back to autumn and winter of 2021, by that time I had already left NATO, but I was well aware about the intel briefings Americans were sharing with friends and allies.
I’ve been following President Putin’s foreign and domestic policy course for 20 plus years. Why did you expect that the war was going to break out? Nobody in Germany or in Europe was expecting that Russia would attack Ukraine, even though they were amassing their troops on the border. You open your book with a story of how you were asked, on February 14, 2022, to give your opinion about the security situation to German politicians. Courage to Change Strategic Course (Sehenden Auges – Mut zum strategischen Kurswechsel), where she criticises NATO’s indecisiveness and proposes tough changes in the alliance’s relations with Russia, Ukraine, and China. Instead, NATO leaders should have maintained “strategic ambiguity” about what their response to Russia’s military actions in Ukraine would be, keeping President Vladimir Putin on his toes, she says in an interview with LRT.lt.ĭr Babst has recently published a book, The Seeing Eye. NATO’s deterrence is not working because it did not prevent Moscow from attacking Ukraine, and statements by Joe Biden and other leaders that the alliance would not intervene directly were an absolute mistake, argues Dr Stefanie Babst, who worked for NATO for 20 years and served as assistant secretary general for public diplomacy from 2006-2012.
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