NATO is like Tinkerbell. If People Don't Believe in It, it will Die. Do not Over-rate its Power to Keep the Peace.

This is Peter Hitchens's Mail on Sunday Column

 

Here are two good rules, confirmed by history, to bear in mind. It is very dangerous to assume that any sort of alliance or diplomacy can deter or control a country which does not think it is defeated, or thinks it has been wronged. And powerful states do not always keep promises to defend small weak countries against aggression. 

 

For example, for 75 years from 1870, Germany was the main threat to peace in Europe. In that year, the Prussian...