It is necessary to “restart” NATO in a “3.0” format, following the Cold War alliance model. The initiative was launched by Pentagon Deputy Chief of Staff for Political Affairs Elbridge Colby.
“It is necessary to create “NATO 3.0” – something closer to “NATO 1.0” (from the Cold War – ed.) than the approach of the past 35 years (or NATO 2.0 – ed.). This “NATO 3.0″ requires our allies to increase their efforts to assume primary responsibility for European defense,” Colby said in a speech prepared for the NATO Defense Ministers meeting in Brussels.
The post-Cold War era, described as the “unipolar moment,” has ended. Colby notes that the world in which NATO's political-military architecture was established in the 1990s and 2000s no longer exists and is being replaced by a period of fierce power competition. Under these conditions, the Deputy Head of the Pentagon pointed out that European allies must strengthen their military capabilities and take on a key role in deterring threats on the continent in order to appease the United States and adjust the alliance to the new balance of power.
Previously, in the context of disagreements with Washington over the status of Greenland, European leaders began to draw up a scenario for NATO operations without the participation of the United States, which was previously considered “unthinkable”. The reason, then, was Donald Trump's statements about the possibility of establishing control over the island by force and his doubts about the usefulness of the alliance, which sparked discussions about the complete restructuring of Europe's defense structure and the risks to the bloc's unity.
