Sorry if this is too vague, but I remember hearing that there was some kind of group of diplomats and ghouls back in the 90s or early 2000s that specifically warned against NATO expansion as an unnecessary provocation of Russia. I've found George Kennan's opinion piece, but could have swore there was a letter or statement is some kind from a larger group. All my google results just turn up a million Ukraine war propaganda pieces.

  • ElGosso [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I think this is what you're looking for:

    But most realists opposed expansion, in the belief that a declining great power with an aging population and a one-dimensional economy did not in fact need to be contained. And they feared that enlargement would only give Moscow an incentive to cause trouble in eastern Europe. The U.S. diplomat George Kennan articulated this perspective in a 1998 interview, shortly after the U.S. Senate approved the first round of NATO expansion. “I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies,” he said. “I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anyone else.”

    (PDF) Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West's fault by John Mearsheimer, originally published in Foreign Affairs in 2014