Statistics provided by the US Department of Defense, in 2003, outlined that there were around 725 American military bases positioned that year overseas in 38 countries, including the presence of 100,000 American soldiers in Europe. 

NATO has prepared a secret action plan in case of a military confrontation with Russia, Responsible Statecraft columnist Ian Davis wrote.

Thousands of pages of secret military plans are to be offered for approval at the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius, Davis said.

The documents were developed behind closed doors by permanent military representatives at NATO headquarters in Brussels. No preliminary coordination works were conducted.

The world finds itself at a critical juncture as tensions escalate in Ukraine, claiming the lives of thousands on both sides. Meanwhile, Israel’s potential strike on Iranian nuclear development sites using US-built F-35 bomber aircraft looms, threatens to ignite a chain reaction of destabilization in the entire Middle East and risks a nuclear conflict with Russia.

Amid heavy losses for Kiev on the battlefield, Atlantic Council Chairman John F.W. Rogers and President and CEO Frederick Kempe awarded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the Atlantic Council’s highest honor, the Global Citizen Award, which is given to individuals who allegedly make significant contributions to improving the state of the world.

As the Russia-Ukraine crisis drags on, NATO has become the pronoun [?] of destabilizer of regional security.

The situation in the Balkans is now at an explosive point. KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, clashed with Serb protesters on Monday. The tension arose after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo’s Serb majority area after April elections that the Serbs boycotted.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that NATO should offer “concrete and tangible security guarantees” to Ukraine as the alliance is debating what to offer Kyiv at a NATO summit that will be held in Vilnius this July.

Macron acknowledged it’s unlikely that Ukraine can obtain full NATO membership, as all 31 members would need to agree, but called for an upgrade to the alliance’s relationship with Kyiv.

The commander of the Czech Republic’s armed forces said the North Atlantic alliance and Russia are on the path to a direct war. The general described the potential war as the “worst-case scenario” but emphasized that it remains a distinct possibility. 

A calamity of even greater cataclysmic proportions and consequences is either soon to break out in the war in Ukraine or sanity somehow finally will prevail against all odds, with all the combatants suddenly finding a way to end the conflict without continuing to kill themselves and, in the process, potentially all the rest of us.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will skip a NATO meeting in Lithuania in July unless the alliance provides Kiev with the security guarantees it wants, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Zelensky has “made clear to NATO leaders that he will not attend the Vilnius summit without concrete security guarantees and a road map for accession,” the newspaper said.