The U.S. Pursuit of NATO Expansion to Russia's Borders: Motivation and Timing

Russia in Global Affairs. 2026. Vol. 24. No. 1. P. 15–41.

Royce D. P.

Drawing on official public communications, memoirs, and declassified/leaked documents, this article contends that Cosmopolitan-Liberalism, and a desire to contain/weaken Russia, drove the U.S. to expand NATO into the Baltics, Ukraine, and Georgia (BUG). This Cosmopolitan-Liberal Anti-Russian BUG Expansion was latent from the moment that the USSR collapsed, was officially adopted on 18 October 1993, and was fleshed out on 13 October 1994. In the case of the Baltics, specific intent to admit them congealed by 13 October 1994, action to that effect began by spring 1996, and accession was accomplished on 29 March 2004. Regarding Ukraine, intent and action crystallized by 13 October 1994 and by 2001, respectively. And regarding Georgia, intent and action crystallized by January 2001 and by late 2003, respectively. These findings have significant implications for understanding NATO expansion. It was/is not a reaction to Russian assertiveness. In fact, the use (or at least immediate threat) of force—not diplomacy, compromise, treaties, etc.—has been the only thing capable of stopping expansion, and is likely to remain such insofar as the U.S.’s Cosmopolitan-Liberal and anti-Russian motives persist.

Keywords: США, Грузия, Россия, Украина, либерализм, USA, Прибалтика, мотив, liberalism, Ukraine, cosmopolitanism, космополитизм, сдерживание, Georgia, motive, Baltics, containment, Russia, NATO expansion, расширение НАТО