The world’s pre-eminent military alliance is losing a war and casting around for a role.
Nato would dispute that the departure from Afghanistan marks a defeat. The Taliban has not bested it on the battlefield. The Nato-led coalition is “transitioning” to Afghan security forces. Some troops will stay behind in a training role. That’s all true. But measured against the blood and treasure expended on a mission to create a shiny Afghan democracy, what is being left behind does not resemble victory. We are witnessing an exit without a strategy.
This puts the alliance in something of a quandary. It was robbed of its founding mission by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Not a shot had been fired in anger. In subsequent decades entire forests have been sacrificed to the drafting and redrafting of something called a new strategic concept to renew the organisation’s purpose.