French President Emmanuel Macron famously said in 2019 that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was in a state of “brain death”. But the alliance has formed a united front since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Could Russia’s war mark the start of NATO’s lasting revival?
In a first for the organisation, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg deployed its rapid response force of 40,000 troops to fortify European borders in response to war in Ukraine. Operational since 2004, NATO’s troops – including land, air, maritime and special operations forces – have only previously been used to respond to natural disasters and to coordinate the departure from Afghanistan in 2021.
