Mick Hume skrifar fína grein þar sem saga Nató er rakin frá upphafi til dagsins í dag. Niðurstaða hans er sú að hernaðarandstæðingar hafi svo sem aldrei verið sérstakir aðdáendur bandalagsins, en nú hljóti meira að segja stuðningsmenn þess að spyrja sig hvaða tilgangi það þjóni eiginlega. Því miður komast ekki allir að sömu niðurstöðu. Frank Furedi skrifar sömuleiðis um Georgíu-málið:“This fantasy of the ‘Rise of Russia’ overlooks the fact that Russia is a relatively feeble and divided nation. Yes, it possesses oil and other important commodities, but it is a conservative and even defensive, status-quo power. There is little doubt that Russia is dominated by an authoritarian and self-serving regime, which is capable of ruthless and violent behaviour. But its recent actions in response to the invasion of South Ossetia by Georgia are no different to those that would have been undertaken by any regional power confronted by a similar challenge.“ Það  er talsvert til í lokaorðunum hjá honum:
„It is difficult to discover clear patterns in the working of twenty-first-century global affairs. Simplistic commentators have claimed that oil was the real reason behind the invasion of Iraq – no doubt today they will argue that the Georgian crisis has been caused by a conflict over resources or by the geo-political ambitions of Russia or the US. Unfortunately, there is a more dangerous force at work. The US in particular (but also other powers) is uncertain of its place in the world. Wars are being fought in faraway places against enemies with no name. In a world where governments find it difficult to put forward a coherent security strategy or to formulate their geo-political interests, a re-run of the Cold War seems like an attractive proposition. Compared to the messy world we live in, the Cold War appears to some to have been a stable and at least comprehensible interlude.
Tragically, governments thrashing about and constructing new enemies can unleash forces that cannot be restrained through conventional diplomatic means. They provoke local actors to embark on military adventures which in turn let loose the dog of wars in the most unexpected of places. Only this time, we lack the clearly worked out rules that helped ensure that the old Cold War did not become Hot.“