By Xu Haiyun
The 10-day NATO Air Defender 2023 joint military exercise wrapped up in Germany on June 23. This aerial exercise launched at an acutely sensitive time has aroused widespread attention and concerns from the international community.
Unlike previous routine military exercises, Air Defender 2023 has inaugurated an unprecedentedly large-scale aerial exercise in the recent history of NATO, featuring rarely large deployment of aircraft and personnel, a vast number of participating countries, and wide geographical coverage, which is said to be the largest scale of air movement exercise according to foreign media reports. Although nearly half of the involved aircraft were sent by the US, the German Air Force also acted as the main force in this exercise, which fully reflected NATO's intention to build Germany as the core of future European operations against Russia.
In the imaginary context of an attack on NATO countries, the exercise was held close to Russia, which was alleged by the initiator to demonstrate the defensive posture of the alliance. Such undisguised fabrication of maximum military pressure through the instigation and deterrence means of NATO makes distinct the antagonistic inclination and dangerousness of the exercise.
Historically, NATO has demonstrated its influence in international affairs through three most direct techniques: extraterritorial armed intervention, military exercises and deterrence, and humanitarian assistance. Among them, the second one has always been the most frequently used and normalized method to show itself by the organization. It stems from its political and military kidnapping by the US and a legacy military tradition from the Cold War.
Since the end of the Cold War, various names of military exercises of NATO have grown instead of shrinking, involving almost all fields ranging from large exercises within the boundary of different European regions to small ones for the defense purpose of the member states. Air Defender 2023 is just one of many deterrent exercises conducted by NATO. This so-called historically largest scale of aerial exercise let the whole world witness that this organization has been addicted and stuck in the endless cycle of military exercises and deterrence. This will no doubt seriously endanger the security of Europe and bring more uncertainties to world peace and stability.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict deepens the geopolitical competition in Europe. As traditional major powers in Europe, Russia and Germany face an increasingly deteriorated or even long antagonistic relationship with each other, which will lead to geopolitical and economic crises in the continent. In this new lengthy, more profound crisis, European countries will have nowhere to hide.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has triggered a worldwide food crisis and energy crisis. Suppose a new round of crisis persists for a long time. In that case, the European economy will be dragged down to a greater extent, and political, social, cultural, ethnic, and other problems will further increase in this region. Regional countries will have to pay a greater price for that, and even the whole world will be affected by the willfulness of NATO.
Superficially, Air Defender 2023 seems to enhance Germany's discourse power in European security affairs. However, the real result is that European countries are further dependent on the US, which further controls its European allies with the assistance of NATO. The reason is that European countries' greater confrontation against Russia will rebound intensely from the other side, making themselves inseparable from the "military protection" of the US.
In that case, European countries will get further away from the so-called strategic autonomy wish.
(The author is a professor at the School of History, Renmin University of China.)
