Daniel Davis Deep Dive Prof John Mearsheimer: NATO in DEEP TROUBLE, Losing Badly in Ukraine
Jan 14, 2026
Prof John Mearsheimer, a leading international relations theorist from the University of Chicago, discusses NATO's precarious position amid the ongoing Ukraine conflict. He argues that the war will ultimately settle on the battlefield, dismissing diplomacy as ineffective. Mearsheimer highlights Ukraine's manpower crisis, Russia's attrition advantage, and Western media's skewed perceptions of the conflict. He also reveals concerns about U.S. actions in Iran and the potential consequences for NATO, painting a grim picture of the future for Western alliances.
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NATO's De Facto Decline
- Combined with Trump's disdain for Europeans and a likely Ukrainian defeat, Mearsheimer sees NATO's de facto future as bleak.
- He expects alliance cohesion to erode even if NATO persists legally.
Regime-Change Playbook Explained
- Mearsheimer frames recent Iran protests as part of a U.S.-Israeli regime-change playbook involving sanctions and fomenting unrest.
- He says sanctions create grievances that external actors then amplify to pursue regime change.
Four Steps To Engineered Revolutions
- He outlines a four-step regime-change strategy: sanctions, foment protests, disinformation, then military intervention.
- Mearsheimer highlights tools like Starlink and Mossad involvement as evidence of external orchestration.