For the 76 years of its existence, NATO has been the cornerstone of security in the North Atlantic. Characterized by its members’ mutual commitment to collective security and the alliance’s foundational values, democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law, NATO has been deemed “the most powerful and successful alliance in history.” However, as the alliance edges closer to a century in operation, cracks have begun to form in its foundation, in the very values that bound its members together since the beginning. Democratic backsliding in allied states have denigrated the trust and cohesion that have made the alliance so effective. Democracy is under threat in NATO member states, which not only degrades the underlying principles that bind the alliance together, but also threatens its operational and strategic cooperation.
While the bedrock of NATO is collective security, democratic values have been the anchor, the binding principles of both the initial creation of the alliance and its expansion. The preamble to the founding 1949 North Atlantic Treaty establishes that, “The Parties to this Treaty … are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage, and civilization of their peoples, founded on principles of democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law.” Subsequently, each new member of the alliance has been required to meet a certain standard of democracy, human rights, and rule of law in order to join, with clear benchmarks established in each potential member’s Membership Action Plan (MAP).
Yet, while the alliance has established measures to ensure that each ally meets democratic standards upon entering the alliance, no mechanism exists for when a current member backslides, eroding its democratic institutions and sliding towards authoritarianism. The governments of Hungary, Turkey, Poland, and, most recently, the United States have all exhibited behavior in recent years that threatens democracy within their borders, and, as a result, threatens the cohesion and interoperability of NATO, whether it be the erosion of checks and balances on political power, a lack of an independent judiciary, limitations on media and academic freedoms, or the repression of civil society. For an alliance that relies on political trust, intelligence integration, and operational coordination, cracks in the democratic foundations of member states lead to uncertainty at best and allies acting against the alliance’s best interests at worst.
The current security environment in which NATO operates exacerbates the threat that these internal divisions pose. On its eastern flank, the Russian invasion of Ukraine represents the greatest territorial threat to Europe since World War II. On its western flank, the threat is internal, with the United States aggressively pursuing the acquisition of Greenland, a territory of a fellow NATO ally, Denmark. Worldwide, autocracies continue to collaborate to erode democratic values and the rule of law internationally, with constant attempts to interfere and break down democratic norms in other states. The cracks in NATO members’ commitment to democracy provide opportunities for authoritarian influence to slip through, which compromises alliance security from within, with the potential for significant impacts on intelligence sharing, political trust, and faith in collective security as the priority. In the face of dynamic security threats, NATO’s cohesion should be its primary strategic objective, as the collective security that the alliance provides is dependent on the alignment of values, priorities, and objectives of its members.
Written by Alexandra Huggins
Recommended Readings/References
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclusive/why-nato-is-more-than-democracys-best-defense
https://www.cfr.org/testimonies/democracy-and-nato-alliance-upholding-our-shared-democratic-values
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/24/nx-s1-5050572/autocracy-inc-review-anne-applebau