Title: The Dynamics of Change - NATO Adaptation and the Future of Transatlantic Security Cooperation
Abstract: Because the North Atlantic Treaty commits its original members to a partnership of unspecified duration, and because NATO has no supranational character (meaning all decisions taken within the NATO framework must be implemented on the basis of unanimity, and can not be imposed on unwilling member states), the alliance has found itself, throughout its history, subject to a series of different tensions implicating both its solidarity and its utility as a defense organization. These tensions include domestic defense commitments of individual NATO member countries, burden-sharing debates within the alliance, political, strategic, and military debates between alliance members, relative merits of defense and deterrence, and differing assessments of external security threats. Faced with such strains, the alliance has had to reconfigure itself in order to continue to fulfill its three most important functions: maintaining the confidence of all member nations, providing for their security, and preserving alliance cohesion. A look into the process by which the alliance has successfully overcome the diffusion of internal interests in the early nineties after the collapse of the Soviet Union will aid in developing an understanding of its capacity to adapt today. In this paper, I will argue that the process of change that NATO underwent in the nineteen nineties laid the groundwork for the erosion of the political basis of the alliance in the present day. Although the alliance continues to exist today, and although it has recently undertaken strong military action, I argue that it is a partnership in crisis, one that no longer has recourse to its historic methods of adaptation. Today’s NATO is less an independent variable setting the security agenda, and more a reactive force that must acknowledge and respond to changes occurring around it. As its internal political consensus has begun to fragment, the organization has placed increasing importance on its military aspect; while this development has held the alliance together, it will not provide a long-term solution because political consensus is a necessary precursor to cooperation in security affairs.
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot