The Big Bang of NATO Enlargement: Goetterdaemmerung or Rebirth? Strategic Insights: v.2, issue 2 (February 2003)
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Authors
Abenheim, Donald
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Advisors
Date of Issue
2003-02
Date
February 2003
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
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Abstract
At the November 2002 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, the western alliance invited seven central and eastern European countries--Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia--to join its system of collective security. This proverbial big bang enlargement of Euro-Atlantic security and defense had, just a few years before, been thought to be impossible. If all goes well, these new members will formally join NATO in the spring of 2004. How could an organization that many believe is a Cold War relic searching for a mission display such vigor at the Prague summit? What force allows this security and collective defense organization to grow in membership and to assume new missions and functions? This essay highlights the features of endurance and adaptability in NATO that elude many critics and doubters, whose analysis is prone to caricatures of Europeans as freeloaders and defeatists. These critics often overstate the divergent strategic interests between the European NATO nations and the United States. Accepting the relevance of the alliance, the essay explores the tasks of statecraft, security and defense reform connected with NATO's enlargement and strategic realignment.
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Article
Description
This article appeared in Strategic Insights (February 2003), v.2 no.2
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National Security Affairs (NSA)
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Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
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Citation
Strategic Insights, v.2, issue 2 (February 2003)
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.