THERE is an alternate narrative to the dominant one on the invasion of Ukraine. It is one that has to do with the ethos of the Treaty of Westphalia and with the post-Westphalian global order.
President Ronald Reagan is remembered for having uttered the fateful words, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," in reference, obviously, to the Berlin Wall that had stood for decades as both fixture and reminder of the Cold War. And Mikhail Gorbachev did agree to the demolition of the wall. He interposed no strenuous objection to the reunification of Germany. But, so the alternate narrative goes, the West made a promise that it would go "no inch farther." Obviously, the Soviet leadership at that time did not want "glasnost" to be an invitation to Western opportunism. The bonds of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) were forged to interdict advances made by the Soviet Union, and the latter was not going to allow any moves that were too close for comfort.
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