The British general Lord Ismay was famously blunt about Nato’s organising mission. The goal of the alliance, its first secretary-general said, was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”. Seventy years after Nato’s founding treaty, Russia remains a threat, the Americans have stayed and German ambitions have been if anything unduly modest.
The alliance began life as the cornerstone of the west’s defence against Soviet communism. Collective defence of the Atlantic community’s democracies sat alongside the Marshall financial aid plan. US support for European economic integration mapped a path to creation of the EU. If proof was needed of the worth of this postwar exercise in enlightened self-interest, it came with the collapse of communism in 1989.
For all that, this week’s Nato birthday celebrations in Washington are expected to be relatively low-key. The plan had been for a summit of the 29 leaders. The gathering was downgraded to one of foreign ministers because of fears US President Donald Trump might use the occasion to fire off more broadsides at the alliance.