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NATO & Russia: Russia’s Views on the 3 Newest Members of NATO using Sentiment Analysis

NATO & Russia: Russia’s Views on the 3 Newest Members of NATO using Sentiment Analysis

Congratulations to Leslie Wilson, an NJCU undergraduate majoring in Security Studies, for being selected as a project intern in summer 2020. Good luck with your next steps! Please see below for some of her research and analysis.


Russia and NATO Relations

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, founded in 1949, was created by two North American and ten Western European countries to ensure members have a level of security within their respective regions. Currently, NATO has thirty “members” or countries working together around the world. The latest four countries under NATO are Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.

Due to several conflicts involving NATO alliances, the relationship has deteriorated.

Russia Today NATO Sentiment

The Russia Today sentiment graph, taken from focusdataproject.com, demonstrates the average monthly polarity for the word “NATO”. The string of light blue to gray indicates how articles containing the word “NATO” are close to neutral. The dips in the graph represent the number of articles released for the month.

AMN, NATO and Russia

AMN
Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, (AMN) were all accepted into NATO in the past eleven years. Albania was accepted in 2009, while Montenegro was added in 2017. The latest addition to NATO was North Macedonia in 2020.

NATO

Russia Today Top Topics

From 2004 to 2020, NATO is the fifth most talked about topic in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation website. In terms of sentiment, NATO topics tend to sway towards positive, however “NONE” is the strongest sentiment indicating how most NATO topics lack sentiment.

Russia

Because NATO members are slowly expanding around Europe, Russia is becoming more surveillant and suspicious over NATO affairs. According to Bearing Witness, a report published by Booz Allen Hamilton, Vladimir Putin views NATO as Russia’s ‘enemy’, especially after Ukraine and Georgia were considered for NATO membership in 2007 (Bearing Witness, pg. 11). Since NATO will continue to expand membership to other countries, Russia will continue to doubt and question the organization’s purpose.

NATO Map

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on AMN

How does Russia view the addition of NATO’s three most recent members? Please see the graphs below for related article, sentiment and emotion.

Russia MoFA Albania

Russia MoFA NM and Montenegro


REFERENCES

  1. “Member Countries”, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, March 24, 2020, accessed July 31, 2020, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_5204 4.htm
  2. “NATO’s relations with Albania”, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, August 28, 2014, accessed July 31, 2020, https://www.nato.int/cps /en/natolive/topics_48891.htm#:~: text=In%20April%202008%2 C%20Albania%20was,member%20on%201%20April%202009.%E2%80%99
  3. Office of the Historian, “North Atlantic Treat Organization (NATO), 1949”, Department of State, n.d., accessed July 31, 2020, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/nato
  4. “Relations with Montenegro”, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, December 14, 2017, accessed July 31, 2020, https://www.nato.int /cps/en/natohq/topics_49736.htm
  5. “Relations with the Republic of North Macedonia”, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, March 30, 2020, accessed July 31, 2020, https://w ww.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_48830.htm
  6. “Relations with Russia”, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, August 5, 2019, accessed July 31, 2020, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/ natolive/topics_500 90.htm

To download a PDF version of this report, please click here.