Many predicted Nato expansion would lead to war. Those warnings were ignored | Ted Galen Carpenter

It has long been clear that Nato expansion would lead to tragedy. We are now paying the price for the US's arrogance

Russia's military offensive against Ukraine is an act of aggression that will make already worrisome tensions between Nato and Moscow even more dangerous. The west's new cold war with Russia has turned hot. Vladimir Putin bears primary responsibility for this latest development, but Nato's arrogant, tonedeaf policy toward Russia over the past quartercentury deserves a large share as well. Analysts committed to a US foreign policy of realism and restraint have warned for more than a quartercentury that continuing to expand the most powerful military alliance in history toward another major power would not end well. The war in Ukraine provides definitive confirmation that it did not.

Ted Galen Carpenter is senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. Carpenter served as Cato's director of foreign policy studies from 1986 to 1995 and as vice-president for defense and foreign policy studies from 1995 to 2011

This piece originally appeared in 19fortyfive