Rubén Herrero de Castro, PhD., Professor of International Relations, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), rubenherrero@cps.ucm.es

“We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression” (Ronald Reagan)
NATO during the Cold War was a fundamental tool in the battle against communism, a basic axis for the defense of all its members, a real threat to the Soviet Union, and a hope for freedom for all countries subjugated under the communist yoke.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the threat of communism faded and after the two Gulf wars of 1991 and 2001 and the 2003 Afghanistan War, NATO has pursued an erratic course, without clearly defining its challenges, threats, and enemies. Also, regrettably in a hostile environment such as the anarchic international environment, NATO has replaced its narrative of peace through strength with one full of absurd political correctness. It is outrageous how its working forums address ridiculous issues such as the impact of gender in armed conflicts or the fight against climate change. This NATO narrative is one of weakness that our implacable enemies, organized crime, terrorist groups, and rogue states, are taking advantage of.
It is to these points that NATO should go, providing its intelligence against organized crime and terrorism in collaboration with the countries and organizations that combat it, adding its military personnel when necessary. The rogue states of the world, such as Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, cannot enjoy the leeway they enjoy invading countries such as Russia does or to host and promote terrorism and organized crime as the rest of these countries do, in addition to the fact that all of them are despicable dictatorships.
NATO must reconstruct a narrative of strength because those who use it are sensitive to it. It must also establish the appropriate synergies with the member countries, and they must collaborate with the Atlantic Alliance, in the line defended by President Donald Trump, that is, by increasing their defense budgets. If they did not, as Trump rightly pointed out, they would be left to their fate.
In Asia, NATO must make it clear to the People’s Republic of China that it will combat its imperialist foreign policy and defend the liberal democracies of Asia, and particularly Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan from their territorial ambitions.
In the Middle East, there is no doubt that NATO must be Israel’s staunch ally, our first line of defense against barbarism. To support Israel is to fight evil on the face of the earth. The enemies of this country are also enemies of the free world, and they sponsor and practice terror. Islamic terrorism is the new great global threat and must be destroyed. It becomes relevant to conceive terrorism as a hybrid war, incorporating this concept into the strategic information of NATO and its allies, to support decision-making processes in matters of defense and security.
On the European continent, now that the Nazi and Communist threats have been overcome, NATO must look decisively to the East, and there it has a formidable country, Poland, which has a powerful army and a capacity for combat beyond doubt. It is not for nothing that its value is coined in the immortal motto „First to fight”. Europe’s security passes through Poland, as a retaining wall against possible migratory avalanches and as a source of deterrence against Russia. Poland has a leading role to play in the reorganization and in the elaboration of the new narrative of NATO. Other countries such as Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania also have an important role to play.
In a hostile environment we cannot stop fighting, strong patriotic leaderships must join forces with a NATO that decisively faces the fact that there is an open war against barbarism on different fronts. Barbarians and dictators must know that their aggression will cost them dearly. It is a war that can be won or lost, but never stop fighting, otherwise we are headed for a strange and disheartening place.

Rubén Herrero de Castro, Political Science and International Relations PhD., Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology of the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). He collaborates with various media, contributes with several chapters in scientific works, is an author in several scientific publications and to date has written three books:

-Invented reality. Perceptions and decision-making process in Foreign Policy (prologue by Robert Jervis), Plaza and Valdés 2007

-John F. Kenney and Vietnam: The Fall of Camelot, Plaza and Valdés 2011

-Allies. Transatlantic Relations: Security and Images of the 21st Century, Plaza and Valdés 2015.