The great strategic lesson of Europe in the 20th century remains fully valid in the 21st: unity strengthens security and protects citizens. The OTAN and the Unión Europea were born from the same historical conviction after the devastation of the Second World War: facing the external threat, facing aggression and facing the imposition of the will of the strongest, democracies are safer when they cooperate and act together. And that is, still today, the most direct answer to the question that gives title to this article: alliances matter because they deter aggression, because they strengthen the capacity to respond to increasingly complex threats and because they protect a common space of freedom, democracy and law.
That conviction is already recognizable in Kant's Perpetual Peace: peace does not arise by inertia, but must be politically constructed through norms, institutions, and stable ties between States. The European Union embodies that aspiration through economic, commercial, and social integration; NATO has provided the indispensable strategic guarantee to protect that space of freedom, cooperation, and law against those who seek to break it. That was the logic of alliances then and it remains the logic of our alliances now.
Precisely for that reason, the cohesion of democracies bothers those who aspire to impose their will by force. It also annoys those who seek to weaken the European project to profit from fragmentation. And it particularly displeases Putin's Russia, whose objective is not limited to the aggression against Ukraine, however serious it may be, but also aims at the deterioration of the European system of freedoms, too close for its authoritarian imperial logic. In this strategy, Ukraine is the visible front, but not the only one, to impose its neighborhood laws, which extend to the erosion of trust between Europeans and the weakening of the transatlantic bond.
New threats, new conception of defense
Defending alliances does not mean falling into outdated immobility, nor denying the need for change. Alliances only endure if they are capable of adapting. But it is advisable not to confuse adaptation with demolition. Today's Europe is not that of 1949, nor are NATO or the European Union itself, which has even changed its name. The threats have changed, strategic concepts have evolved, and the number of member states in both institutions has grown. The very nature of defense has also changed, which cannot be measured solely in military terms or physical borders.
Today it includes the capacity to respond to cyberattacks, sabotage, pressure on critical infrastructures, hybrid attacks, electoral interference, disinformation campaigns, or actions aimed at fracturing our societies from within. Resilience is no longer an exclusively military task. It is a shared responsibility that affects governments, civil society, companies, and citizens, and that demands a broad conception of defense, as reflected in the investment commitment agreed upon at the Hague summit in 2025: at least 3.5% of GDP in defense spending and up to an additional 1.5% in defense and security-related spending.
Today's Europe is not that of 1949, nor is NATO, nor the European Union itself
From that reality, exclusionary nationalism and extreme protectionism do not represent a modern response to current challenges, but rather an involution. The more isolated countries live, the more vulnerable their citizens become. The more cooperation between democracies breaks down, the easier it is for authoritarian powers to impose their regressive agendas. The alternative to the tensions or imbalances that any alliance can generate is not isolation, but better-adjusted cooperation, intelligent strategic autonomy, and a firm will for reconstruction rather than demolition.
The strategic relevance of alliances
Recent events confirm it. Dinamarca decided in June 2022 to fully join the common security and defense policy of the Unión Europea. Finlandia joined the OTAN on April 4, 2023 and Suecia did so on March 7, 2024, after long decades of neutrality. Recently, the government of Islandia has announced that on August 29, 2026, it will begin the procedures for a referendum to reopen accession negotiations with the Unión Europea. Also Ucrania has clearly demonstrated it. The resistance of the Ucranian people, supported politically, economically, and militarily by its partners, is keeping Ucrania's sovereignty alive and reminds Europa that freedom cannot be taken for granted.
NATO remains essential for the collective defense of allied countries
In Spain, the perception of threat often remains distant. However, even in that context, NATO maintains a positive social valuation, although still insufficiently recognized in relation to the real role it plays. We are not facing an organization rejected by Spanish society, but rather an alliance whose usefulness needs to be better explained and understood. Because NATO is not just a military defense structure in the Euro-Atlantic region, but a political and military alliance that acts by consensus among allies, against common threats and which remains essential for the collective defense of allied countries, in an era of growing hybrid threats and authoritarian challenges.
A shared task by institutions and civil society
From the Spanish Atlantic Association we defend the principles that inspire the North Atlantic Treaty: freedom, democracy, rule of law, transatlantic link, and collective defense, as the basis of a shared security currently by thirty-two countries and nearly one billion citizens. We want to contribute to a greater understanding of Spain's contribution to this security and defense of the Euro-Atlantic region through NATO, strengthening an informed civil society and countering influence campaigns that pursue exactly the opposite: to divide us to weaken us.
Faced with continued attacks on the multilateral order and historical Western alliances, the principles that inspire them not only remain fully valid, but are more necessary today than ever. Because alliances matter not only for their historical legacy, they matter because they continue to transform the values we share into effective security for free nations and citizens. And that task requires, today, an informed, committed civil society aware that speaking rigorously about security and defense is also a democratic necessity.
about the signing:
Ana Botella is the President of the Spanish Atlantic Association (AAE) and former Secretary of State for Security (2018-2020). She has also been a Member of Parliament in Congress for the PSOE for four terms (2016-2023) and Government delegate in the Valencian Community with José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero.