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 postWorld 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 postCold War rapprochement and more than a decade of expeditionary effort in Afghanistan, How NATO Adaptsexplores 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.
Table of Contents Synopsis Chapter 1: Introduction
Part I: Thinking about Adaptation and NATO Chapter 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 Adaptation Chapter 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 Future Chapter 7: NATO Adaptation into the 21st Century, 1999-2012 Chapter 8: How NATO Adapts
Bibliography Index
""The book of Seth A. Johnston is both a powerful reminder of the Alliance's complex but successful history and, at the same time, a testimony to its unique institutional resilience and adaptability.""
