Promises, Promises

One of the sore spots in the increasingly frayed relationship between U.S. and Russia is NATO's expansion into former Warsaw Pact territory. The Russians have complained bitterly about it and have even alleged that the U.S. initially promised not to expand NATO during the dissolution of the Soviet Empire, only to go back on their word shortly after.

In the most recent Washington Quarterly, Mark Kramer says the Russian line is bunk:

The recent declassification of crucial archival materials in Germany, Russia, the United States, and numerous other European countries finally allows for clarification on the basis of contemporaneous records.

The documents from all sides...undermine the notion that the United States or otherWestern countries ever pledged not to expand NATO beyond Germany. The British, French, U.S., and West German governments did make certain commitments in 1990 about NATO’s role in eastern Germany, commitments that are all laid out in the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, but no Western leader ever offered any ‘‘pledge’’ or ‘‘commitment’’ or ‘‘categorical assurances’’ about NATO’s role vis-a`-vis the rest of the Warsaw Pact countries. Indeed, the issue never came up during the negotiations on German reunification, and Soviet leaders at the time never claimed that it did. Not until several years later, long after Germany had been reunified and the USSR had dissolved, did former Soviet officials begin insisting that the United States had made a formal commitment in 1990 not to bring any of the former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO.

None of this touches on the wisdom of NATO expansion but it does serve as a useful reminder that Russian complaints about said expansion aren't rooted in the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.