Western democracies should be supporting those who represent the beginning of real civil society in Russia, not the thuggery of Yeltsin's cabal in the Kremlin. The West can, and must, continue to do business with Russia, but limits must be set and rules clearly defined. The first practical step in redefining the relationship with Moscow is to state unambiguously that Russia has neither a droit de regard over its former European allies nor a veto on NATO membership. Russia may no longer threaten the Western alliance directly, but it is certainly not a benign neighbor to the states of central Europe. Ruthless suppression of the parliament in Moscow and dissidents in the provinces, as well as the invasions of Tajikistan, Moldova, and the states of the Transcaucasus, are all reminiscent of Soviet actions in East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland during the Cold War years.
American isolationists tend to see security guarantees as dangerous entanglements.
But twice in this century unrest in central Europe has led to conflict on a global scale. Western interests, not woolly minded altruism, dictate that NATO must guarantee security in this region or risk another global upheaval. The CSCE continues to monitor human rights and can serve an early warning function, but it has no role in conflict resolution. The WEU is far from ready to assume the burden carried by NATO during the Cold War. If the United States retreats into isolation, the likely outcome is not a strengthening of the WEU, but a re-nationalization of European defense policies and the gradual disintegration of the Western security community.