President Emmanuel Macron took a lot of flak for his interview in The Economist last week. In particular, his comments over NATO supposedly being “brain-dead” were widely seen as irresponsible. Even if he had a substantive point, the argument went, it is not prudent to say it out loud as doing so damages the alliance’s credibility in the same way that central bankers can easily trigger panics by raising doubts about the soundness of financial institutions.

There is a difference though. Banking is an extremely complex industry and central bankers have access to information not shared by many others. The crisis within NATO, in contrast, has been staring the Western world in the face for a better part of this decade. Europeans have done very little in response to President Obama’s disregard for his own red line in Syria or to his infamous interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in which he professed his frustration with America’s European allies.

Not even Donald Trump’s
presidency has provided a wake-up call to those who think that the
transatlantic partnership will be able to return eventually to some version of
business as usual. Similarly, the challenge that the presence of Turkey poses
in the alliance, which president Macron raises, is not one that many are
willing to grapple with either. In that sense, Macron has done everybody a
service – it is far better if the West is forced to reckon with these issues
under pressure from an explosive interview than under pressure from a real crisis,
which will come, sooner or later.

If the rationale for Macron’s
bombshell is justifiable, many of his conclusions are downright puzzling. For
instance, he claims (correctly) that over a long term, Russia has no
alternative but to build closer ties with Europe and uses that to justify a
policy of “normalization” for EU-Russian relations that he would like to see in
the coming years.

That makes no sense. Faced with
its own economic challenges, dismal demographics, and the rise of China, Russia
needs the EU far more than the EU needs Russia. There is no reason for
Europeans to twist themselves into pretzels to make the Russians feel welcome –
especially not after 2014.

Worryingly, last week’s interview was not a one-off. France already backed Russia’s return to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Macron hinted it could rejoin the G7 as well. The France-led end to EU enlargement in the Balkans also creates an opening for Vladimir Putin.

Even under the most charitable of interpretations, it is hard to see how Macron is not repeating the errors of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who both believed that a lasting and credible settlement could be reached with Putin. What they all failed to grasp was that the problem with Russia had to do with the nature of its regime. As long as the country remains a one-man oil kleptocracy, the incentives for its government to behave predatorily will always be there. Perhaps Putin’s Russia can be tamed – but for that purpose, carrying a big stick will be far more effective than offering a whole bunch of undeserved carrots.

The post Enough “resets” with Russia, please appeared first on American Enterprise Institute – AEI.