Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book presents a cutting edge analysis of NATO's current position, role and importance during this period of geopolitical change and crisis in the international order.
The rules-based international order is in serious crisis. Revisionist and authoritarian major powers such as China and Russia pose external challenges to this order, seeking to expand their territorial boundaries and 'spheres of influence', undermine institutions, and suppress liberal values such as human rights. Traditional geopolitics is making a comeback, deeply affecting European and transatlantic security. In addition, the United States appears to be retreating from its historical role as an anchor of the Western liberal order. Newly elected President Donald Trump has not only openly questioned the fundamental precepts of the liberal order itself. During his first visit to Brussels in May 2017, he also refused to confirm Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty - leaving European allies in doubt about America's commitment to NATO. The Trump administration also seems to intend to increase pressure on NATO allies to pay more for their own defence. Moreover, populist movements touting anti-globalist, nationalistic, xenophobic and neo-mercantilist policies have grown in popularity across liberal democracies. However, the question facing NATO now is how to adapt to the geopolitical changes and transatlantic uncertainty. Against this background, the main objectives of the book are to describe and analyse the risks and dangers NATO faces in the current strategic environment, and to discuss how NATO can readjust to those challenges, and why NATO is very likely capable of doing so. The book will make an original contribution to the existing literature on NATO and transatlantic relations, because it will discuss the latest developments within NATO since the Trump administration took office and since it will be highly policy-relevant.
This book will be of interest to students and policymakers of NATO, geopolitics, international order, transatlantic security, security studies and IR in general.
Synopsis
The main objectives of this book are to analyse the risks and dangers NATO faces in the current strategic environment, and to discuss how the alliance can readjust to those challenges.
How can NATO adapt to the dangerous combination of a revisionist Russia, a reluctant US, and a Europe in crisis? NATO's relevance and ability to survive have been challenged many times before and it has not only survived but has proven highly adaptable to change. This has been good for Western cohesion and for the consolidation of the liberal-democratic, rules-based world order. The main argument of this book is that NATO can overcome this latest set of challenges as well and retain its central role as a cornerstone of the European and transatlantic security order. NATO is different from other alliances because its members share not only interests but values as well, codified in the preamble of the North Atlantic Treaty as allied support for democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law. The greatest enemy of the alliance is the forces that challenge the common norms and values of NATO's member states, and - in a larger perspective - the liberal-democratic, rules-based world order, and Western civilisation itself. The book makes an original contribution to the existing literature on NATO and transatlantic relations and discusses the latest developments within NATO since the Trump administration took office.
The book will be of much interest to students of NATO, geopolitics, security studies and International Relations in general.