Of all the legacies Madeleine Albright left behind, setting the stage for the former Soviet-dominated world’s integration — first militarily and, eventually, economically and politically — is among her finest.
. Maybe the most consequential accomplishment of Albright’s tenure at Foggy Bottom was the 1999 expansion of NATO to include nations that were once captives within the Warsaw Pact, as well as the efforts of Albright and the Clinton administration to appease Moscow.
Of all the legacies Albright left behind, setting the stage for the former Soviet-dominated world’s integration — first militarily and, eventually, economically and politically — is among her finest. As Russia’s war on Ukraine attests, the pre-modern world in which brutal force is the ultimate arbiter of events is still very real. Only the compelling deterrent power of counterforce stays the hand of land-hungry despots.beyond its Cold War borders was not a sure thing.
At the time, some of the most respected voices in foreign policy and international relations regarded NATO expansion with fear and contempt.that NATO’s eastward drift was not a threat to their security. There, she floated a series of compromises, including provisions that would provide Russia with input on NATO’s deployments and even its strategic maneuvers. The Kremlin wanted those provisions to be.