NATO after Brexit

After Brexit the fragile nature of Western multilateral culture and commitment is more obvious than ever. The NATO summit must address this issue if it wants to be able to handle Russian assertiveness in a cool headed and responsible manner. Without a robust NATO 'we', a resort to the rhetoric of danger vis-a-vis Russia may all to likely be the strategy chosen if the alliance is to mobilize public support for ressources. Such a rhetoric is bound to spiral out of control. Instead, NATO governments must abandon their current 'cost-benefits' approach to mulitlateral cooperation and return to more fudnamental narratives about collective security and supranational regulation. That means recognizing the ways in which NATO discourse and strategy may itsef have contributed to the current fragmentation and opportunism.