2022 Western Democratic States Take Seats in the Theatre of War to Watch the Live Performance of Ukraine’s Defence of Freedom on Behalf of Humanity.
By Maurice Evlyn-Bufton, CEO, Armstrong Wolfe
8rd March 2022
Question: At what point does Excalibur and drawing the sword of the righteous transcend appeasement?
The legacy of World War Two Freedom transcends state boundaries, it transcends cross-state treaties. The European Union (1949 Council of Europe); 1957 European Economic Community; 1993 European Union) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, 1949) were established because of the last world war to protect freedom. Specifically, NATO was created by the United States, the UK, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. Notedly NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. The EU was originally created with the aim of ending the frequent and bloody wars between neighbours, which culminated in the Second World War.
On the EU’s website, it states in its history ‘visionary leaders inspired the creation of the European Union we live in today. Without their energy and motivation, we would not be living in the sphere of peace and stability that we take for granted.’ Considering the Ukrainian crisis, it needs updating, demonstrating how we have underestimated the frailty of peace (in Europe). This leads us to question how aligned the EU in 2022 is in its response to this crisis and its founding principles when 10 Western European countries created the Council of Europe to promote democracy and protect human rights and the rule of law. This was reinforced with the 1953 European Convention on Human Rights. Similarly, how closely aligned is NATO’s response to its founding principles: by signing the North Atlantic Treaty, parties were “determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of the peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.”
