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From foes to friends: NATO's history of absorbing its enemies
NATO and Russia have been enemies since the beginning of the Cold War. But could there be a time in the future where Russia is a partner, maybe even an ally? That's not happening any time soon, but if history is any indication, it's not such a crazy idea: alliance has absorbed its enemies before.
GZERO World goes back in time to the height of the Cold War, nuclear paranoia, and the formation of the Warsaw Pact in 1955.
Let's talk a walk down NATO memory lane. Don't forget to duck and cover.
Watch the GZERO World episode: Russia vs. NATO: Heightened risk of war
Odds of NATO-Russia war rising
Russia's war in Ukraine has dramatically raised the odds of a direct confrontation with NATO due to Western sanctions against Moscow. Russia now considers NATO to be its enemy, and vice versa, former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World. In fact, Daalder explains, Russian military aggression is a very real and present danger.
That makes the current situation in some ways even worse than during the Cold War, when the United States and Soviet Union tried to find ways to coexist and set up arms control agreements.
But now all of that is gone. Russia has even walked away from New Start, the last nuclear weapons treaty between Washington and Moscow.For Daalder, who is also the president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the possibility of all-out war between the world's two nuclear superpowers is the highest it's been since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Watch the full interview on an upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, airing on US public television nationwide. Check local listings.
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