7. The Expansion of NATO
Although NATO was created as an intergovernmental military alliance to stop the spread of communism, after the fall of the Soviet Union, arguably it had served its purpose and should have been disbanded. Instead, not only did America see the alliance as a way of keeping European nations united in the absence of the Soviet threat, NATO began bringing more nations into the fold. This decision and expansion have had a detrimental effect on the 21st century as when the autocratic and authoritarian leader of modern Russia, Vladimir Putin, was inaugurated as President on 7 May 2000, one of his key goals was the destruction of NATO.
Following the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity in February 2014 and their stated intentions to join NATO, Putin decided enough was enough and annexed Crimea and supported pro-Russian separatists of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk republics. In 2021 and early 2022, Russian troops began massing on the Ukrainian border, and despite Putin denying he was planning to invade the country, no one believed him.
