The value diplomacy of the Joe Biden administration has breathed life into the previously ailing North Atlantic Treaty Organization, despite the fact that it was brain dead during the tenure of the previous US administration.
The Biden administration has been touting the value of the latest Strategic Concept document, which is due to be adopted by the transatlantic alliance members at the end of their three-day summit in Madrid on Thursday.
Since those values are a framework in which to constrain China as a rival and a threat it can be expected that NATO is in the pay of Washington's Indo-Pacific strategy. The Ukraine conflict serves to show what that means.
The members of the bloc have become puppets of Washington, no matter how much they protest that they aren't so, despite the fact that they're seeking the shelter of the collective security umbrella held by the US.
A puppet can never control its puppeteer, so NATO is increasingly acting as a collective of coercion, with Washington pulling the strings.
By collectively targeting China in the name of defending their own security, they are amplifying the hollow ring of their claims to be upholders of rules and peace.
Since the end of the Cold War, without any reason for still being in existence, NATO has shone a deceptive light on the path it pursues. It has depicted that as a noble crusade despite the disastrous consequences for those countries in which its forces have stepped foot, such as those on the Balkan Peninsula, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya or on whose doorstep they stand, such as Ukraine.
It is by no means coincidental that NATO has become more assertive about expanding and maximizing its influence at a time when the US's anxiety has become acute. The organization has let itself be used as a tool for the US to defend its hegemony under the name of collective security and defend a rules-based international order.
The leaders of Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand are also attending the Madrid summit because the US wants to expand its membership and scope to include the Asia-Pacific, in order to broaden the sweep of what has become its own comfort blanket.
NATO's insidious creep into the Asia-Pacific on the bases of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and various security treaties between the US and its allies will gather pace.
All countries in the region should be wary of that. There is no space for speculation about what that will be like once it gains a foothold.