Story highlights Richard Galustian: Standoff between West, Russia could trigger geopolitical catastrophe

Greatest hope for world's security is alliance that was until recently unthinkable, he says

Richard Galustian is a security consultant who has lived in Libya since 2011. The opinions in this article belong to the author.

(CNN) American Russophobes in Washington seem to be doing everything possible to create an unstoppable clash between the West and Russia that cannot be undone by any institution or person.

A huge military buildup in Poland is being mounted as NATO signals offensive war maneuvers toward Russia. It can be described as nothing else in the waning days of the dismal Obama administration.

Such pettiness is rooted in thinking born in a previous century when the Soviet Union was the greatest menace facing the West. That threat has now been replaced by Islamist extremism. The inauguration of Donald Trump in a matter of days presents the West -- and the supranational institutions that back its outdated ideas -- with the opportunity to break this destructive cycle and stop seeing Russia as the enemy.

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The 20th-century security paradigm that established NATO is over. NATO was set up in 1949 to defend Europe against a perceived threat of Soviet aggression. But the Soviet Union is no more.

The West's once-powerful alliance is becoming an increasingly outmoded coalition, designed to deal with problems that no longer exist.

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