When it had finally finished, he was a worried man. Every professional fiber in his body screamed that unless NATO took immediate action, it would almost certainly be too late. All the indicators pointed to an imminent Russian attack on Latvia and quite possibly Estonia and Lithuania, too. Unless Article 5 was declared right now, NATO would have failed in the one mission for which it had been set up: to come to the aid of a fellow member under attack. Once the Russians were in country they would be almost impossible to dislodge. NATO had to stop the attack happening in the first place and that meant declaring Article 5. Unless NATO started getting credible forces on the ground, it would be game over before it had even started.

With multinational NATO troops in Latvia, the Russians would have to know that firing on Latvian forces would also mean firing on other NATO forces. That might—just might—make them reconsider where this was going to end. Even an Article 5 declaration might not be enough to deter them, although in a saner world and with a different president in charge, it would be. But of one thing McKinlay was now convinced: if it was just Latvians defending Latvia, the Russians would not hesitate. Crimea and Ukraine in 2014 had shown that, as did this new attack on Ukraine right now.

Dammit, he had wanted to shout, as he listened to the ambassadors grandstanding, if anybody here cares to think back to the Russian invasion of Georgia in the “friendly” days of 2008, when the world was swearing peace, brotherhood and the end of war at the Beijing Olympic Games, then that would tell any doubters exactly how the President thought. And what the President planned to do next.

After the meeting he had a one-to-one session with General Vahr, the Danish Chairman of the Military Committee, in the corridor outside.

“Knud, NATO is staring at disaster unless we get things moving. Right now. And yet, without NAC authority, we’re stuck. I’m going back to SHAPE and I’ll call up SACEUR. He needs to know how bad things are. I’ll also call up the Chiefs of Defense of the main contributors to the VJTF and ask them to reduce notice to move bilaterally, on a national basis and not a NATO basis. That way, if . . . and when, the NAC agree Article Five, we can get it moving to the Baltic states as quickly as possible.”