No, Britain shouldn’t invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty

Theresa May might regret using such strong language in her statement on the Skripal case last night. Saying that there had been the ‘unlawful use of force’ on British soil and that a response would be imminent has led to a lot of people invoking Article 5 of the NATO treaty – something mentioned in newspapers today. Lord Ricketts, a former UK national security adviser, is one of many to say that this ‘unlawful’ act warrants the use of NATO. For its part, NATO has released a statement saying ‘the UK is a highly valued ally and this incident is of grave concern to NATO’. May did not say ‘armed attack’ – the condition to invoke Article Five – but ‘unlawful use of force’, which is different. It’s all hot air, though – and will be seen as such by the Kremlin. But hey, never mind that, when instead we can all shake our fists at Russia and say it has messed with the wrong country.