The Ritual Performance of Deterrence: NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence in the Alliance’s Eastern Flank
Journal: Kent Academic Repository (University of Kent)
Year: 2018

NATO’s post-Crimea Enhanced Forward Presence (efP) in the Baltic states and Poland is considered to be ‘part of the biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defence in a generation’. The belated physical performance of NATO deterrence in the Baltic region in symbolic rather than actual numbers necessary for thwarting a full-scale Russian attack is evocative of the ritual nature of the Alliance’s collective defence commitment. Deterrence is, by definition, an act of faith: it lacks physical r