NATO Renewed The Power and Purpose of Transatlantic Cooperation [Hardcover]

This book provides an overview of what has happened to NATO from the closing stages of the Cold War to the new era of international terrorism. However, it is more than that. It also argues that NATO has travelled a course that contradicts the prevailing image of an organization in decline and crisis. NATO must be crafted by its members to fit the security environment in which it operates. Rynning argues that the allies did this poorly in the mid-90s but have succeeded better in the past few years. NATO has persisted into this new era because it has overcome a crisis of identity in the 90s and is on track to establish a viable model for flexible transatlantic security cooperation.Alliances and Change The Ambiguous Alliance, 1989-1997 The Demise of Collective Security, 1997-2001 Toward a Coalition Framework, 2001-2005 Conclusion

Rynning's study of the Western Alliance is careful, current and compelling.

Wars in Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, and the experiences of

NATO and its members in either participating or staying out, have had

profound effects on the alliance. Contradicting others' analyses, Rynning

argues that the lessons learned from the wars of our time have strengthened

rather than weakened NATO. Over the last decade and a half the Western

Alliance has been radically transformed in size, in fighting doctrine, in

capability and in political dynamics, all of which point to resilience in

the decades ahead.

- Donald J. Puchala, University of South Carolina

'At a time when the 'NATO is dead' school seems once again in the ascendant, Sten Rynning reassesses both the underlying purpose and the power dynamics of 'the world's most successful alliance.' Arguing from a rigorous realist perspective, Rynning rejects the generalized pessimism of his theoretical mentors lƒ-