Following last night’s shooting down of Russian drones in Polish Airspace, Poland has asked NATO to open consultations under Article 4 of its treaty, which states that members of the Western military alliance will consult together whenever any of them is threatened.
The incident is being seen as one of major concerns for ‘The West’.
But what is ‘The West’? Why are Poland in it? Are New Zealand and Australia, countries on the extreme east of the map, as we understand it, also part of “The West”?
Georgios Varouxakis is Professor in History of Political Thought at Queen Mary University of London and author of ‘The West: The History of an Idea’. He joins Seán to discuss.