How NATO Adapts: Strategy and Organization in the Atlantic Alliance since 1950
272How NATO Adapts: Strategy and Organization in the Atlantic Alliance since 1950
272Paperback(New Edition)
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Overview
Today’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with nearly thirty members and a global reach, differs strikingly from the alliance of twelve created in 1949 to “keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down.” These differences are not simply the result of the Cold War’s end, 9/11, or recent twenty-first-century developments but represent a more general pattern of adaptability first seen in the incorporation of Germany as a full member of the alliance in the early 1950s. Unlike other enduring post–World War II institutions that continue to reflect the international politics of their founding era, NATO stands out for the boldness and frequency of its transformations over the past seventy years.
In this compelling book, Seth A. Johnston presents readers with a detailed examination of how NATO adapts. Nearly every aspect of NATO—including its missions, functional scope, size, and membership—is profoundly different than at the organization’s founding. Using a theoretical framework of “critical junctures” to explain changes in NATO’s organization and strategy throughout its history, Johnston argues that the alliance’s own bureaucratic actors played important and often overlooked roles in these adaptations.
Touching on renewed confrontation between Russia and the West, which has reignited the debate about NATO’s relevance, as well as a quarter century of post–Cold War rapprochement and more than a decade of expeditionary effort in Afghanistan, How NATO Adapts explores how crises from Ukraine to Syria have again made NATO’s capacity for adaptation a defining aspect of European and international security. Students, scholars, and policy practitioners will find this a useful resource for understanding NATO, transatlantic relations, and security in Europe and North America, as well as theories about change in international institutions.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781421421988 |
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Publisher: | Johns Hopkins University Press |
Publication date: | 02/01/2017 |
Series: | The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science , #132 |
Edition description: | New Edition |
Pages: | 272 |
Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d) |
Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Table of ContentsSynopsis Chapter 1: IntroductionPart I: Thinking about Adaptation and NATOChapter 2: Historical Institutionalism and the Framework of "Critical Junctures" Chapter 3: Institutional Actors and the Mechanisms of NATO Adaptation
Part II: Case Studies of NATO AdaptationChapter 4: The West German Question in the Early Cold War, 1950-1955 Chapter 5: Flexible Response and the Future Tasks of the Alliance, 1962-1967 Chapter 6: NATO and the New World Order, 1992-1997
Part III: NATO Endurance and Implications for the FutureChapter 7: NATO Adaptation into the 21st Century, 1999-2012 Chapter 8: How NATO Adapts
Bibliography Index
What People are Saying About This
A meticulously researched and in-depth historical study of the NATO Alliance and its responses to inflection points throughout its history. Johnston knows NATO, and he knows how to write. How NATO Adapts is illuminating and educational.
Nothing is more important to NATO than the ability to adapt and adjust its approach— tactically, operationally, and strategically—as circumstances change. How NATO Adapts is an honest and unbiased examination of the successes and challenges of this turbulent twenty-first century for the world's premier security Alliance.
A unique analysis of NATO's evolutionary development, How NATO Adapts effectively employs a useful new prism for examining the alliance. Well-organized and well-written, this book should be of great interest to anyone with an academic or professional interest in NATO's history and institutional dynamics.
Nothing is more important to NATO than the ability to adapt and adjust its approach tactically, operationally, and strategicallyas circumstances change. How NATO Adapts is an honest and unbiased examination of the successes and challenges of this turbulent twenty-first century for the world's premier security Alliance.
How NATO Adapts offers a theoretically innovative and empirically rich account of why this post–World War II military alliance continues to play an important role in today’s multipolar world. This well-researched book constitutes an excellent addition to the growing scholarly literature that applies historical-institutional theories to the study of international relations.
Nothing is more important to NATO than the ability to adapt and adjust its approach— tactically, operationally, and strategically—as circumstances change. How NATO Adapts is an honest and unbiased examination of the successes and challenges of this turbulent twenty-first century for the world's premier security Alliance.—Admiral (ret.) James G. Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, current Dean of The Fletcher School, Tufts University
How NATO Adapts offers a theoretically innovative and empirically rich account of why this post–World War II military alliance continues to play an important role in today’s multipolar world. This well-researched book constitutes an excellent addition to the growing scholarly literature that applies historical-institutional theories to the study of international relations.—Giovanni Capoccia, University of Oxford
A unique analysis of NATO's evolutionary development, How NATO Adapts effectively employs a useful new prism for examining the alliance. Well-organized and well-written, this book should be of great interest to anyone with an academic or professional interest in NATO's history and institutional dynamics.—Stanley R. Sloan, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, The Atlantic Council, author of Defense of the West: NATO, the European Union and the Transatlantic Bargain
A meticulously researched and in-depth historical study of the NATO Alliance and its responses to inflection points throughout its history. Johnston knows NATO, and he knows how to write. How NATO Adapts is illuminating and educational.—Jeffrey A. Larsen, NATO Defense College, coeditor of On Limited Nuclear War in the 21st Century
Johnston provides well-researched insight into the inflection points of NATO's timeline by illuminating personalities, quotations, and political crossroads.