Italy’s Meloni Charts a Path to Peace in Ukraine — With a Startling Approach to the North Atlantic Treaty

Giorgia Meloni is laboring to bring about a just and enduring peace that will safeguard Ukraine’s security and sovereignty — without provoking Moscow’s nuclear fury. And she is doing so with the sangfroid of a seasoned negotiator-cum-diplomat.In light of President Trump’s hard-boiled peace proposal to Presidents Zelensky and Putin, the Italian premier senses that the light at the end of the tunnel lies within reach. Yet the endgame may be jeopardized by a European jingoism masquerading as allied solidarity.For all its battlefield losses, many of which have now been reversed, Russia remains a prodigious nuclear power. However, Ukraine is a devastated, militarily exhausted polity. Why run the risk of upsetting the best opportunity for ending the carnage by poking the Russian bear?On March 15, in a video conference convened by Prime Minister Starmer, the president of Italy’s Council of Ministers declared an unequivocal “No” to stationing Italian troops in Ukraine. According to the London Financial Times: “The office of Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, said Italian participation in a possible military force on the ground was not envisaged.”Signora Meloni understands that hastily conceived military options may heighten rather than defuse tensions. “I am very perplexed regarding European troops, I don’t consider it effective,” she added — underscoring the precipitous nature of such an undertaking. Sir Keir’s “coalition of the willing” and the call by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to increase the Continent’s defense efforts via Rearm Europe, all are well and good — especially now that Mr. Trump may reduce America’s military presence in Europe.Yet are such measures workable? Prime Minister Meloni was categorically opposed to Mrs. von der Leyen’s initial proposal to raid the European Cohesion funds and use those monies for defense. These post-Covid funds were explicitly earmarked to help EU countries revivify their economies. Mrs. Von der Leyen’s prodigality in pursuit of bellicosity brings to mind Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex.Signora Meloni has also rejected the European Commission president’s next scheme, which involves borrowing 150 billion euros to lend to the European Union to finance the aforementioned Continental rearmament program.The ad hoc policy-making doesn’t stop there, though. The director of the Global Public Policy Institute, Thorstein Benner, said recently that “given all the uncertainty, Germany might have to go nuclear itself,” the New York Times reported.Granted, today’s Germany has evolved from its militaristic history, atoned for a genocidal past, and become a paragon of stability and democratic values. Still, a nuclear-armed Berlin should give both friend and foe pause. According to Mr. Benner, “So far talk of a German bomb has been limited to fringe types, but now it becomes more mainstream.” If Mr. Putin waged an illicit war against Ukraine, allegedly seeking a cordon sanitaire to guard against an expansionist North Atlantic Treaty Organization, what would his reaction be to a newly hegemonic Deutschland?Prime Minister Meloni might want a word with the incoming German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Despite its postwar alliance with Rome, Berlin has openly interfered with Italian democracy. Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Nicholas Sarkozy pretty much toppled the Berlusconi government in 2011. According to an analysis by Wall Street’s C. Robin Castelli, Helmut Kohl hornswoggled both Lamberto Dini and Romano Prodi in the run-up to the euro. Chancellor Kohl, in Mr. Castelli’s analysis, “devalued the Mark by 22% prior to the date at which the Euro Exchange rate was fixed, basically setting up Italy for the following 25 years of permanent stagnation and the export successes for Germany.”Italy isn’t the pliant, left-leaning polity of yore. While steadfastly supportive of Mr. Zelensky’s Ukraine in its struggle against Mr. Putin’s aggression, Signora Meloni refuses to march entirely to the tune of the EU.Rather than parroting the knee-jerk jingoism of President Macron or the budding belligerence of the neophyte Herr Merz, Signora Meloni proffers innovative solutions. One entails extending Article 5’s security guarantee to Ukraine — without NATO membership — thereby ensuring its sovereignty while satisfying Russia’s call for Kyiv’s neutrality.Despite Mr. Trump’s shambolic tariff pronouncements and seeming indifference to Europe, Signora Meloni would not decouple from Washington. Like Walter Lippmann in 1944, she recognizes that the United States remains at “the center of the Western World.”

Italy’s Meloni Charts a Path to Peace in Ukraine — With a Startling Approach to the North Atlantic Treaty

Italy’s Meloni Charts a Path to Peace in Ukraine — With a Startling Approach to the North Atlantic Treaty

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