Has Russian Invasion Rejuvenated NATO?

It was just a few years ago, 2018 to be precise that then US President Donald Trump threatened to quit the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Trump was furious most NATO allies weren't contributing their fair share to the alliance.

NATO was a shadow of itself, with the Cold War over and the war on terror dwindling, many NATO countries saw no need to invest heavily in their militaries. NATO became an organization with no clear goal or aim. There were deep divisions between member states and broad cuts to military budgets across a few NATO allies. The US seemed like the only country in the alliance that took its military seriously.

November 2019, in an interview with the Economist, French President Emmanuel Macron stated in stark terms "What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO" Fast-forward four years later and Macron is "I could say today that Vladimir Putin has revived it (NATO) with the worst of electroshocks.”

Russia's war has had the opposite effect of what Vladimir Putin wanted. A once brain-dead NATO has been rejuvenated, revived, and expanded. Germany has pledged to meet for the first time NATO's 2% of GDP military spending target, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced last year an extra €100billion for the German military. More US troops are heading back to Europe as opposed to a couple of years ago when US troops were being withdrawn from Europe.

More importantly, NATO has doubled its land borders with Russia with the addition of Finland. Sweden like Finland gave up its neutral status in the face of Russian aggression to join NATO. Putin probably didn't expect this level of blowback, unity in NATO, and this level of support for Ukraine. His war on Ukraine has given life to NATO which was in decline and there's no going back.