Read complete books and articles on: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

North Atlantic Treaty Organization - (NATO), established under the North Atlantic Treaty (Apr. 4, 1949) by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States. Greece and Turkey entered the alliance in 1952, West Germany (now Germany) entered in 1955, and Spain joined in 1982. In 1999 the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined, and Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined five years later, bringing the membership to 26. NATO maintains headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The treaty, one of the major Western countermeasures against the threat of aggression by the Soviet Union during the cold war, was aimed at safeguarding the freedom of the North Atlantic community. Considering an armed attack on any member an attack against all, the treaty provided for collective self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The treaty was also designed to encourage political, economic, and social cooperation. The organization was reorganized and centralized in 1952.

In the 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Treaty Organization, NATO's role in world affairs changed, and U.S. forces in Europe were gradually reduced. Many East European nations sought NATO membership as a counterbalance to Russian power, but they, along with other European and Asian nations (including Russia), initially were offered only membership in the more limited Partnership for Peace, formed in 1994. Twenty countries now belong to the partnership, which engages in joint military exercises with NATO. NATO is not required to defend Partnership for Peace nations from attack. In 2002, NATO and Russia established the NATO-Russia Council, through which Russia participates in NATO discussions on many nondefense issues.

NATO has increasingly concentrated on extending security and stability throughout Europe, and on peacekeeping efforts in Europe and elsewhere. NATO air forces were used under UN auspices in punitive attacks on Serb forces in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and the alliance's forces were subsequently used for peacekeeping operations in Bosnia. NATO again launched air attacks in Mar.–June, 1999, this time on Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro) following following the breakdown of negotiations over Kosovo. In June, 1999, NATO was authorized by the United Nations to begin trying to restore order in the province, and NATO peacekeeping forces entered Kosovo. In Aug., 2003, NATO assumed command of the international security force in the Kabul area in Afghanistan, and in October a NATO rapid-response force was established. The membership of many NATO nations in the increasingly integrated European Union (EU) has led to tensions within NATO between the United States and those EU nations, particularly France and Germany, who want to develop an EU defense force, which necessarily would not include non-EU members of NATO.

NATO's highest organ, the North Atlantic Council, may meet on several levels—heads of government, ministers, or permanent representatives. The council determines policy and supervises the civilian and military agencies; NATO's secretary-general chairs the council. Under the council is the Military Committee, which may meet at the chiefs of staff or permanent representative level. Its headquarters in Washington, D.C., has representatives of the chiefs of staff of all member countries; France, however, withdrew from the Military Committee from 1966 to 1995 while remaining a member of the council.

NATO is now divided into two commands. Allied Command Operations is headed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). SACEUR directs NATO forces and, in time of war, would control all land, sea, and air operations. Allied Command Transformation, with headquarters at Norfolk, Va., is responsible for making recommendations on the strategic transformation of NATO forces in the post-cold-war era.

Bibliography

See P. H. Spaak, Why NATO? (1959); R. Osgood, The Entangling Alliance (1964); A. Beaufre, NATO and Europe (1966); J. Huntley, The NATO Story (1969); J. A. Huston, One for All: NATO Strategy and Logistics through the Formative Period, 1949–1969 (1984); L. P. Brady and J. P. Kaufman, ed., NATO in the 1980s (1985); W. H. Park, Defending the West (1986); J. R. Golden et al., ed., NATO at Forty (1989).

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Long Entanglement: NATO's First Fifty Years » Read Now
by Lawrence S. Kaplan. 268 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The fiftieth anniversary of the long entanglement between the United States and NATO is an appropriate occasion to reflect. One of the few NATO studies to concentrate on the history of the alliance, particularly the relationship between its senior partner and its European allies, this study examines...
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The fiftieth anniversary of the long entanglement between the United States and NATO is an appropriate occasion to reflect. One of the few NATO studies to concentrate on the history of the alliance, particularly the relationship between its senior partner and its European allies, this study examines critical issues in depth to uncover the ability of the allies to surmount their internal divisions and to confront their Soviet adversary. While NATO archives are still not fully open, the use of declassified documents from the National Archives and the presidential libraries are of invaluable assistance in considering the historical role of America in the alliance and the continuing relevance of the organization in U.S. foreign policy.
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2.

NATO after 2000: The Future of the Euro-Atlantic Alliance » Read Now
by John Borawski, Thomas-Durell Young. 162 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

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.
3.

NATO for a New Century: Atlanticism and European Security » Read Now
by Carl C. Hodge. 211 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

NATO's military interventions in the Balkans have transformed the alliance. As the alliance goes East, its members are compelled to rethink NATO's, and each member nation's, military and political roles. Providing a well-rounded study of continuing change in the contemporary North Atlantic Treaty...
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NATO's military interventions in the Balkans have transformed the alliance. As the alliance goes East, its members are compelled to rethink NATO's, and each member nation's, military and political roles. Providing a well-rounded study of continuing change in the contemporary North Atlantic Treaty Organization, this book is constructed around eight essays by European security experts analyzing challenges confronting the Atlantic Alliance as a military alliance and as a collective security organization dealing simultaneously with deterrence, enlargement, and regional crisis intervention. It is intended for senior undergraduate and graduate students in international relations, American foreign policy, European studies, security and strategic studies.
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4.

NATO and Caspian Security: A Mission Too Far? » Read Now
by Tanya Chadick-Paley, Richard Sokolsky. 113 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This report attempts to put the Caspian Basin and Central Asia into a comprehensive strategic perspective at a time when NATO is increasingly concerned with challenges on its periphery. The authors examine NATO's interests, capabilities, and constr
5.

NATO Looks South: New Challenges and New Strategies in the Mediterranean » Read Now
by Ian O. Lesser. 64 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

The security environment facing the U.S. and NATO in Europe is changing in fundamental ways, including a steady growth of security challenges emanating from Europe's southern periphery-around the Mediterranean and beyond. This study explores this phenomenon, with special attention to transregional...
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The security environment facing the U.S. and NATO in Europe is changing in fundamental ways, including a steady growth of security challenges emanating from Europe's southern periphery-around the Mediterranean and beyond. This study explores this phenomenon, with special attention to transregional risks, Turkey's Alliance role and need for redefinition, the risk of a Greek-Turkish conflict, the Mediterranean dimension of NATO adaptation, and what these issues might mean for U.S. and NATO strategy. Areas for future research include lessons of Kosovo for basing and access, the role of air power based in Turkey,a nd potential USAF contributions to Greek-Turkish risk reduction.
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6.

France, NATO and the Limits of Independence, 1981-97: The Politics of Ambivalence » Read Now
by Anand Menon. 258 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Anand Menon contends that France's arms-length relationship with NATO's integrated military structure served its purpose during the Cold War, but since then has come to impose increasingly higher costs.
7.

Defense Policy in the North Atlantic Alliance: The Case of the Netherlands » Read Now
by Jan Willem Honig. 268 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Addressing the widely misunderstood issue of who defines defense policy in the North Atlantic Alliance, Jan Willem Honig asks, Is it NATO, the national governments, or the national military? Honig's conclusion--which runs counter to the conventional wisdom that NATO is highly influential--is that...
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Addressing the widely misunderstood issue of who defines defense policy in the North Atlantic Alliance, Jan Willem Honig asks, Is it NATO, the national governments, or the national military? Honig's conclusion--which runs counter to the conventional wisdom that NATO is highly influential--is that the decisive influence in defining defense policy lies neither with NATO nor the allied governments but with the individual national military establishments. He argues that the Alliance does not possess the powers or the institutional framework to effectively control or steer allied defense policies. individual national military establishments.
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8.

NATO Looks East » Read Now
by Piotr Dutkiewicz, Robert J. Jackson. 199 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

The writers examine how the eastward movement of NATO has led to a new organization. As they point out, the process was underway by the time the Soviet Union collapsed. Issues of western financial constraint, the Gulf War, events in the former Yugoslavia, and changing configurations of the major...
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The writers examine how the eastward movement of NATO has led to a new organization. As they point out, the process was underway by the time the Soviet Union collapsed. Issues of western financial constraint, the Gulf War, events in the former Yugoslavia, and changing configurations of the major NATO partners led the way. In addition, these essays examine the potential effects of the incorporation of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary as well as the more distant, but still conceivable inclusion of the Baltic states, Ukraine, and others and special arrangements with Russia.
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9.

NATO and European Security: Alliance Politics from the End of the Cold War to the Age of Terrorism » Read Now
by Alexander Moens, Lenard J. Cohen, Allen G. Sens. 187 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

From the end of the Cold War to the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, the NATO Alliance has changed profoundly. This book explores the multifaceted consequences of NATO's adjustment to new international and domestic political and security realities. Internal Alliance politics...
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From the end of the Cold War to the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, the NATO Alliance has changed profoundly. This book explores the multifaceted consequences of NATO's adjustment to new international and domestic political and security realities. Internal Alliance politics and matters of relative power within the membership have strongly influenced recent NATO developments. Several major issues challenging the Alliance are examined, including how the impact of efforts to develop an enhanced common European security and defense policy have affected NATO: whether missile defense is driving the United States and its European allies closer or further apart; how the experience of NATO in the Balkans and elsewhere brought alliance members together or made NATO cohesion more difficult to maintain; and in what way the changing role of NATO has influenced American and Canadian participation in the Alliance. An important guidepost to pivotal changes and likely NATO developments, scholars and policymakers of Atlantic and international politics will find these meditations indispensable.
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10.

Opening NATO's Door: How the Alliance Remade Itself for a New Era » Read Now
by Ronald D. Asmus. 370 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

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...
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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 policymakers, 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.
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11.

The Western European Union at the Crossroads: Between Trans-Atlantic Solidarity and European Integration (Chap. 5 "Relations between the WEU and NATO") » Read Now
by G. Wyn Rees. 158 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Seeking to explain the development of the Western European Union, this book focuses, in particular, on its current role. It investigates the WEU's institutional and operational development, its proposed enlargement, and the motivations of its leading members - France, Germany and the UK.
12.

NATO Strategy and Nuclear Defense » Read Now
by Carl H. Amme. 188 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

The central problem discussed in this timely volume is the continuing question of how to incorporate nuclear weapons into NATO strategy in such a way that the military defense posture possesses sufficient credibility to deter the Soviet Union and reassure the allies. The evolution and differences in...
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The central problem discussed in this timely volume is the continuing question of how to incorporate nuclear weapons into NATO strategy in such a way that the military defense posture possesses sufficient credibility to deter the Soviet Union and reassure the allies. The evolution and differences in the strategic concepts of the major nations in the Alliance are analyzed by examining the character of the opposing military capabilities and some of the practical problems of fighting a local nuclear battle.
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13.

The Future of NATO's Mediterranean Initiative: Evolution and Next Steps » Read Now
by Jerrold D. Green, F. Stephen Larrabee, Ian O. Lesser, Michele Zanini. 50 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

NATO's mediterraniean Initiative is acquiring new significance with canges in the strategic environment and chanes in NATO itself. Greater attention is being devoted to developments on teh southern periphery of the Alliance. Members of the NATO Dialogue will have a shared stake in addressing new...
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NATO's mediterraniean Initiative is acquiring new significance with canges in the strategic environment and chanes in NATO itself. Greater attention is being devoted to developments on teh southern periphery of the Alliance. Members of the NATO Dialogue will have a shared stake in addressing new security challenges, many which are transregional and require cooperative strategies in response.
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14.

The NATO Enlargement Debate, 1990-1997: The Blessings of Liberty » Read Now
by Gerald B. Solomon. 196 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

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...
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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.
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15.

NATO's Air War for Kosovo: A Strategic and Operational Assessment » Read Now
by Benjamin S. Lambeth. 276 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...Offers a thorough appraisal of Operation Allied Force from a military, political, and strategic perspective, calling attention to those issues that are likely to have the...
16.

The Future of NATO Expansion: Four Case Studies » Read Now
by Zoltan Barany. 267 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have received only scant attention in scholarly literature over the past decade. This book offers an in-depth analysis of the readiness of the four East European states for membership in NATO. Zoltan Barany examines their political, economic, and military...
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Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have received only scant attention in scholarly literature over the past decade. This book offers an in-depth analysis of the readiness of the four East European states for membership in NATO. Zoltan Barany examines their political, economic, and military conditions and concludes that they do not satisfy NATO's own criteria for membership. He argues, that while NATO should reiterate readiness to accept qualified candidates, it should not dilute its military capabilities by admitting new members who will be consumers of, rather than contributors to, security.
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