Article,
Does a multi-tier NATO matter? The Atlantic alliance and the process of strategic change.
International Affairs, 85 (2): 211 - 226 (2009)
Abstract
This year NATO will celebrate its 60th anniversary. So far the world's most powerful military alliance has been a remarkable success story. However, as the first decade of the new century draws to a close there appears to be a widening strategic rift among the allies. ‘Two-tier NATO’ is by now an established piece of shorthand in international strategic debate to indicate an ‘alliance à la carte’ divided into two or more factions of member states with divergent interests. Evidently, the alliance increasingly struggles to reach consensus on a whole range of strategic issues. So is NATO on a path to disintegration and, ultimately, to failure? This article argues that the organization has developed from a fixed ‘two-tier’ into a rather fluid ‘multi-tier’ alliance. On many issues the alliance is in fact divided into several different camps that are pushing in different directions. Thus, allies can be grouped into one of three tiers: a ‘reformist’, a ‘status-quo’ and a ‘reversal’-oriented
Tags
- --
- alliances,
- atlantic
- cooperation,
- europe
- europe,
- foreign
- international
- north
- organization
- organization,
- relations
- states
- states,
- strategy,
- treaty
- united
