There are widespread reports of cyber attacks in Ukraine.

JOHN QUIGLEY, quigley.2@osu.edu
Professor emeritus of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley’s books include The Ruses for War: American Interventionism Since World War II.

Quigley dealt with the Crimea issue following the breakup of the USSR, at the request of the U.S. Department of State, which was working through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on the subject. He has written about it for the Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law.

Last June, Quigley was featured on an accuracy.org news release warning: “NATO Trying Use Cyber Attacks to Trigger Article 5.”

At that time, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had told the Atlantic Council (which is funded by various NATO governments): “We have decided that a cyber attack can trigger Article 5. … It doesn’t matter if an attack is kinetic or cyber, we will assess as allies when it meets the threshold. … and it sends a message that we are cyber allies.”

Quigley warned then: “There are obviously concerns about cyber attacks, they can be very damaging, for example the cyber attacks against Iran by the U.S. and Israel.

“But Article 5 of the NATO Treaty references Article 51 of the UN Charter which provides for collective self defense in the event of ‘armed attack.’

“And the notion of ‘self defense’ is a very slippery slope and has been misused as an illegal threat or for outright war.

“So the notion of the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the Biden administration seeking to expand NATO’s capacity is very dangerous and could be used to try to undermine the democratic processes within each country regarding war-making decision making.

“NATO was set up to counter the Soviet Union from supposedly invading Western Europe. So, there’s really no legitimate reason for NATO to exist as an organization. Instead, it has expanded. The last time Article 5 was used was for the invasion of Afghanistan and look where that has gotten us.”