Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
American Pride:

Your comment about Poland and the Baltic States is interesting. First it seems the Poles are helpless. They may not agree. Second, and even more interesting, is your apparent opinion that the disadvantage of having Poland and the Baltic States in NATO is that it makes it harder to sell them out.

I guess will see if that siloviki kleptocracy that is Russia can weather what may be coming their way.
Are the Poles "helpless"? No. But Poland is not exactly a superpower, either. Poland entered NATO to defend itself from Russia, but by doing so, it also put its security interests in the hand of Germany and France. Washington and Berlin can make an agreement with Moscow over Warsaw's objections - what recourse would Poland have if that were to occur? Could it leave the EU? Or suspend military cooperation with NATO? Absolutely not. That's the disadvantage for Poland entering into the EU and NATO. In realist IR and alliance theory, the utility of institutions and alliances like NATO are determined by their strongest members; i.e. the United States; and so the organization's interests largely reflect their interests. This is a disadvantage for Poland, which is clearly a weaker partner in the alliance, and politics is about trade-offs. The gain for Poland is the assurance of security, hence all the talk about "credibility" in Washington and elsewhere. So, the dilemma created by Polish membership is that Poland's security interests can be in direct contradiction with Berlin or Paris or Washington interest in avoiding or minimizing confrontation with Russia.