Synopses & Reviews
Two decades since the watershed of the Cold War, this book investigates NATO's staying power. This book investigates how the Alliance has adapted and managed to attend to new roles and purposes through the lens of International Relations theory. The Alliance will continue, but will remain subject to ongoing crises and challenges of change.
Synopsis
NATO is the perennial survivor. Crises come and go, yet still it persists. Two decades since the watershed of the Cold War, this book investigates NATO's staying power. From the collapse of the Soviet Union through wars in the Balkans, and interventions in Afghanistan and Libya, the Alliance has adapted and managed to attend to new roles and purposes. What explains NATO's longevity and what can we infer from its recent past in assessing its possible future? And what has been the nature of its development - is this driven by the interests of its powerful members, by institutional flexibility or the glue of a set of common values? This book tackles such questions. It investigates the transformation of the Alliance through the lens of International Relations theory and a set of case studies that look at operations, enlargement and relations with Russia and the EU. NATO, it concludes, will continue, but it will remain subject to ongoing crises and challenges of change.
About the Author
MARK WEBBER is Professor of International Politics and Head of School (Government and Society) at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is the author/editor of several books on post-Soviet Russia, European security governance and foreign policy analysis. His work on NATO has involved editing special issues of International Affairs and the Journal of European Integration. He is currently co-editing a book on Theorizing NATO.
JAMES SPERLING is Professor of Political Science at the University of Akron, Ohio, USA. His publications have explored various facets of German foreign economic and security policy as well as issues around the new security agenda, global security multilateralism, and regional security governance. His most recent publications include the co-authored EU Security Governance (Manchester University Press 2007) and the co-edited National Security Cultures: Patterns of Global Governance (Routledge 2010), European Security Governance: The European Union in a Westphalian World (Routledge 2009), and Global Security Governance (Routledge 2009).
MARTIN A. SMITH is Senior Lecturer in Defense and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK. He is the author or co-author of several books on NATO and European security after the Cold War and most recently of Power in the Changing Global Order (Polity Press, 2012).
Table of Contents
WHERE IS NATO GOING?THINKING NATO THROUGH THEORETICALLYOPERATIONSENLARGEMENT
NATO-RUSSIA RELATIONSNATO AND THE EUROPEAN UNION CONCLUSIONENDNOTES