Elon Musk Wonders Why NATO Continues to Exist After 1991
Bureaucracies often "live their own lives" and end up creating the very problems they are supposed to solve
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949 during the period of mounting geopolitical tensions during the Cold War.
American entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk has asked why NATO still exists since 1991 — when the Warsaw Treaty Organization, which included the USSR, had already disintegrated.
Musk was responding to a post on social network X by billionaire David Sachs, who wrote of NATO's "existential crisis" after the collapse of the USSR. Instead of disbanding, the North Atlantic Alliance has a new mission — expansion — Sachs wrote.
In 1991 the Soviet Union fell apart and NATO faced an existential crisis: its reason for being no longer existed. But rather than disband, it came up with a new mission: to expand. And in a self-referential loop, NATO expansion would create the hostility needed to justify itself.
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) March 2, 2024
He added that bureaucracies often "live their own lives" and end up creating the very problems they are supposed to solve. NATO, which was ostensibly meant to "prevent war," has expanded to Russia's borders and "tried to encircle it, provoking war."
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created on April 4, 1949, during the period of growing international tensions during the Cold War.