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The Evolution of NATO: The Alliance's Strategic Concept and its Predecessors, 1945-2000
The Evolution of NATO The Alliance's Strategic Concept and its Predecessors 19452000 Author:Peter Schneider This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A037873. The abstract provided by... more » the Pentagon follows: A review of European and transatlantic history since World War II suggests that the Cold War largely determined the foreign and security policies of Euro-Atlantic nations and of such international organizations as NATO. In the late 1960s, dramatic changes in Europe put an end to the Cold War deadlock and caused the transformation of NATO. NATO's origins reside in the era of 1919- 1948. Formed in 1948/49 as a collective defense institution, NATO's purposes, procedures and capabilities were adjusted to deter the Warsaw Pact threat. Since 1990 the organization appears to be the sole one still capable of dealing with current and future risks and threats of the transition processes. The thesis analyses NATO's path from confrontation to cooperation in view of NATO's evolution, beginning with NATO from its Cold War strategies, through the revolutionary changes due to the Alliance's New Strategic Concept (Rome, 1991), and ending in the present with the outcome of the Alliance's Strategic Concept (Washington, 1999). The thesis assesses NATO's potential for further improvements and NATO's future role as an organization shaping in the security environment in the Euro-Atlantic area.« less