NATO's Further Enlargement2001

In the 1990s, NATO began a course of enlargement and transformation to remain relevant in Europe's post-Cold-War security environment. As part of its commitment to enlargement, it admitted three new members--Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic--in 1999 and has plans to admit more countries in the future. NATO's enlargement has profound military implications for the United States and its allies in terms of future planning and shaping strategies. Its enlargement and its transformation, from an organization for the collective defense of its members to one whose mission includes conflict prevention and conflict management throughout Europe (including beyond its treaty area), have both been driven primarily by political imperatives--i.e., not by a sense of direct threat, but by an...