Slouching toward Kaliningrad, NATO dismisses a nuclear threat

During the Cold War, the exclave of West Berlin, isolated in the middle of Communist East Germany, was regarded as one of the most dangerous potential flashpoints for a conflict between the Soviet Union and the West. Indeed, Joseph Stalin’s blockade of land access to the city in 1948-49 came close to triggering a new war, until the U.S. and Britain proved able to supply the population by air.It is a pity, if not altogether surprising, that Western leaders gave no thought to this history before extending NATO membership to Poland and Lithuania, thereby isolating the Russian exclave of Kaliningr