Rebecca Moore: NATO's New Mission - Projecting Stability in a Post-Cold War World

Hardcover: 210 pages
Publisher: Praeger Security 2007

Rebecca Moore's book is a concise and informative account of the transformation of NATO since the end of the Cold War. NATO's military mission of deterring the Soviet totalitarian threat has changed into a political mission of extending liberal democratic values.

The story of NATO after 1990 and the disapperance of the Soviet threat, as narrated by Moore, is a convincing criticism against political realism. Mearsheimer et co. who argued against NATO enlargement and viewed it as useless predicted the return of instability and great power rivalry in Western Europe. What in reality happened was that the peace zone was extended towards East. Now the European Civil Space encompasses former Soviet satellites in Europe that is increasingly becoming "whole and free".

NATO transformed itself from a military balance of power tool designed to sustain the status quo into an political apparatus designed to create a liberal democratic security order. Only time will tell whether NATO will develop into a global alliance of democratic states. Moore quotes more than once Javier Solana's insight: "Security... is what we make of it."

Second Opinion: Patrick Stephenson / NATO Review

¶ 9/11/2008 05:01:00 ip.