A recent essay by Director of Research at The American Ideas Institute Dr. Sumantra Maitra on a ‘dormant NATO’ recently made waves with foreign policy experts. These influential figures could end up in office should Trump win the 2024 election, so it’s worth asking: is NATO winding down? Dr. Maitra joins UnHerd to discuss the possibility of a revolutionised security state, with UnHerd writer Aris Roussinos.
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SubscribeI have so many contradictory thoughts regarding this discussion.
First, on a technical point, the camera people did a bad job. There were too many dark spaces when the camera changed its viewpoint. That made the event seem amateurish but I know Unherd is capable of a higher standard.
I believe Dr. Maitra is a knowledgeable commentator with interesting things to say about an important topic, but he is, to be blunt, not an engaging speaker. Too much umming and ahhing. Freddie didn’t help with his repeated nudge-nudge, wink-wink comments about Dr. Maitra’s possible role in a hypothetical Trump second term. Similarly, Aris is not at his best in this type of venue. He’s a fine writer and is comfortable out in “the field,” such as his video covering Extinction Rebellion, and, a long time ago, his “Edgeland” video for Unherd. In a studio discussion he spends too much time staring at his shoes.
I suppose a person’s demeanor shouldn’t matter in this type of discussion. It’s his ideas that count. But appearances do matter in a visual medium. I would be genuinely interested to read back-to-back articles by Dr. Maitra and Aris regarding the future of NATO and how Europe should prepare for a future defined by a more isolationist USA. I’m sure they would both shine.
Despite my somewhat negative comments, well done Unherd for hosting this discussion about an important topic.
Interesting discussion.
I was gratified that there was at least some engagement regarding the proposition that the US would be looking to Europe for more “burden-sharing” – burden to do what?
I read the US exhortations on “burden-sharing” as Europe spending more on implementing US policy, which the two intervenients did at least on some level acknowledge, and they also acknowledged that Europe might – hopefully, finally, in the end – look more to its own interests than the (divergent) interests of the US.
This week, we learned about the 12 CIA bases in Ukraine. We have learned this morning, courtesy of Olaf Scholz, about UK troops being in Ukraine helping the Ukrainians fire missiles. That midwit Ellwood is pontificating about Scholz putting our troops at risk. We shouldn’t have boots on the ground in the first place without parliamentary approval.
I am far more worried about the UK poking the bear into a response than Putin, whom I don’t otherwise fear in the slightest. Being the US’s poodle, Airstrip One, is a far greater risk to my personal security.
Transnistria looks like it will ask to be annexed. If that happens, then Putin will likely seize Odessa and the entire coastal strip. If Zelensky had taken the deal on the table 2 years ago, he would have ended up with a far better situation for Ukraine than he is going to now. Part of the blame for where we are today lies at Bozo’s door, and it is time he fessed up to it.
In other words, I’m broadly with Dr Maitra in this discussion.