, " Joe Biden says . | AP Photo Biden reassures NATO allies : I do n't think Trump ' understands what Article 5 is ' Vice President Joe Biden sought to reassure NATO allies on Tuesday of the United States ' " sacred honor " to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and specifically Article 5 , in the face of continued concerns about the prospect of what a President Donald Trump would do — going so far as to suggest that Trump does not understand " what Article 5 is . "
Haberman : We both do . Trump : Then yes , I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries , “ Congratulations , you will be defending yourself . ” Sanger reminds Trump that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treatygovernment.agreements.naobliges member nations to treat an attack on one as an attack on all . Trump replies , “ How is it helping us ? We have massive trade deficits . ” He also says , “ In a deal , you always have to be prepared to walk”—as if the 28 nations of NATO were opposing sides in a contract dispute , not members of a mutually beneficial , trusting alliance .
For US liberals who eschew the naked imperialism of Paul Wolfowitz ( on which see Patrick E. Tyler , “ U.S. strategy plan calls for insuring no rivals develop , ” New York Times , 8 March 1992 , archive.today/Rin1g ) , R2P is the justification of choice for Western military action in the Middle East and elsewhere , as evidenced by its ubiquity in the push to invade Libya in 2011 and Syria in 2013 . Jared Cohen 's former superior at the US State Department , Anne - Marie Slaughter , has called it “ the most important shift in our conception of sovereignty since the Treatygovernment.agreements.naof Westphalia in 1648 . ” See her praise for the book Responsibility to Protect : The Global Moral Compact for the 21st Century , edited by Richard H. Cooper and Juliette Voïnov Kohler , on the website of the publisher Palgrave Macmillan , archive.today/0dmMq . For a critical essay on R2P see Noam Chomsky 's statement on the doctrine to the UN General Assembly . Noam Chomsky , “ Statement by Professor Noam Chomsky to the United Nations General Assembly Thematic Dialogue on Responsibility to Protect , ” United Nations , New York , 23 July 2009 , is.gd / bLx3uU.