, Columnist
Turkey and NATO Prove the Anna Karenina Principle of Alliances
Recep Tayyip Erdogan should read Tolstoy before blocking Finnish and Swedish membership in NATO.
In defense of family values.
Photographer: Heikki Saukkomaa/AFP via Getty Images
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All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Leo Tolstoy’s famous opening in Anna Karenina applies also to alliances. Right now, NATO is unhappy with Turkey, the European Union with Hungary. For the sake of all involved — including cherished relatives such as Sweden and Finland — let’s hope these families sort things out.
The most urgent challenge is to get the Finns and Swedes, who are members of the EU but not yet of NATO, into the transatlantic military alliance for their own safety and NATO’s.