The return of traditional high-intensity warfare to Europe has led to important changes in the European security apparatus. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has certainly re-emphasised the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and collective defence. When NATO was founded in 1949, territorial defence was its only raison d’être, but, from 1991 onwards, deterrence and defence came to be included into a broader range of tasks and progressively put on the back burner. Since the Russian Federation illegally seized and annexed Crimea in 2014, however, the Alliance’s focus has progressively shifted from crisis management and cooperative security back to its original deterrence and collective defence mission, enshrined in Article 5 of NATO’s founding document, the North Atlantic Treaty.
Author: Federica Fazio, Dublin European Law Institute, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University.
Series: Dublin European Law Institute Working Paper Series, 1(2) 2024
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