The Nato Enlargement Debate 1990 1997

Countless editorials have addressed the if, how, why, when, and who dimensions of NATO enlargement. These issues will continue to generate debate despite the Madrid summit decisions and will invariably influence legislators in discharging their historic responsibility to provide advice and consent to ratification of the protocols of accession before April 1999. Congressman Solomon's volume will help place these issues in perspective, answer the skeptics of enlargement, and provide the missing historical context for the profound geopolitical challenge of European security on the cusp of the 21st century. He begins by reviewing NATO's initial response, from 1989 to 1990, to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The early moves from outreach toward enlargement are then explored, and then he examines how NATO sought to combine the two strands of prospective enlargement while engaging nations not seeking NATO membership, especially Russia, to prepare for coalition operations and the spread of democratic security values. Next he analyzes how the Partnership for Peace concept eventually progressed toward the decisions to invite the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance by 1999. Important reading for scholars, policymakers, and citizens concerned with current strategic and international relations issues.

How and why did NATO, a Cold War military alliance created in 1949 to counter Stalin's USSR, become the cornerstone of new security order for post-Cold War Europe? Why, instead of retreating from Europe after communism's collapse, did the U.S. launch the greatest expansion of the American commitment to the old continent in decades? Written by a high-level insider, Opening NATO's Door provides a definitive account of the ideas, politics, and diplomacy that went into the historic decision to expand NATO to Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on the still-classified archives of the U.S. Department of State, Ronald D. Asmus recounts how and why American policy makers, against formidable odds at home and abroad, expanded NATO as part of a broader strategy to overcome Europe's Cold War divide and to modernize the Alliance for a new era. Asmus was one of the earliest advocates and intellectual architects of NATO enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism in the early 1990s and subsequently served as a top aide to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott, responsible for European security issues. He was involved in the key negotiations that led to NATO's decision to extend invitations to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, the signing of the NATO-Russia Founding Act, and finally, the U.S. Senate's ratification of enlargement. Asmus documents how the Clinton Administration sought to develop a rationale for a new NATO that would bind the U.S. and Europe together as closely in the post-Cold War era as they had been during the fight against communism. For the Clinton Administration, NATO enlargement became the centerpiece of a broader agenda to modernize the U.S.-European strategic partnership for the future. That strategy reflected an American commitment to the spread of democracy and Western values, the importance attached to modernizing Washington's key alliances for an increasingly globalized world, and the fact that the Clinton Administration looked to Europe as America's natural partner in addressing the challenges of the twenty-first century. As the Alliance weighs its the future following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and prepares for a second round of enlargement, this book is required reading about the first post-Cold War effort to modernize NATO for a new era.

In this collection the leading authorities address the complexity of present day NATO, its inherent contradictions, and its current direction. The authors reflect on the significance of these issues for the alliance's future prospects, for Russia, and for European security generally. The Future of NATO looks at the conceptual and theoretical approaches that underlie the question of enlarging NATO's membership and the consequences of enlargement on international relations. It examines the policies of some of NATO's leading member states - including Canada, which has recently begun a two-year term on the security council - and deals with the issue of enlargement from the point of view of the East European candidates, focusing on Russia and its opposition to the current process. Contributors include Andràs Balogh (Loràn Eötvös University), Martin Bourgeois, Charles-Philippe David (UQAM), André P. Donneur (UQAM), David G. Haglund (Queen's), Philippe Hébert (Montréal), Stanislav J. Kirschbaum (Glendon College), Richard L. Kugler (RAND, National Defence University), David Law (Queen's), Paul Létourneau (Montréal), Jacques Lévesque (UQAM), Gale Mattox (U.S. Naval Academy), Marie-Claude Plantin (Lumière Lyon 2), Sergei Plekhanov (York), Jane M.O. Sharp (Kings College, London).

No proceedings publication was planned when political scientists gathered in Berkeley in the spring of 1998 for a conference on NATO enlargement, but by the end of it, they decided that too many important issues and ideas had been brought to up let scatter undocumented. The ten essays evaluate the pros and cons of enlarging the alliance, explain why it was expanded eastward, and recommend which countries if any should be offered membership in the future. Distributed in the US by ISBS. c. Book News Inc.

Borawski and Young provide a serious analysis of the major issues confronting European-North American relations. They draw detailed attention to the fundamental political and military issues before the Atlantic Alliance. They illustrate that NATO remains essential to Euro-Atlantic security. Only the Atlantic Alliance can bring to bear well-tested military capability under US leadership to promote its members security, interests, and democratic values. However, to remain vital, the Alliance must undertake a serious review of its major purposes: enlargement to the former Warsaw Pact nations, a strategic partnership with Russia, defense against weapons of mass destruction, and a more mature transatlantic relationship drawing on the lessons of the former Yugoslavia. This is an important assessment for policymakers, military planners, scholars, students, and others concerned with current European-American relations.

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