NATO Enlargement: Illusions and Reality

NATO has been an alliance without a mission since the end of the Cold War. Even as plans for expansion go forward, the post-Cold War mission of the alliance remains unclear. It is clear, however, that NATO enlargement will create several problems. By including the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, while excluding other nations, NATO expansion threatens to create a new division of Europe. Equally worrisome, Russia views the extension of the alliance as highly provocative. In short, NATO enlargement reflects a failure on the part of policy makers to recognize new strategic realities — and that failure could have dangerous unintended consequences.

Ted Galen Carpenter is senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. Dr. Carpenter served as Cato’s director of foreign policy studies from 1986 to 1995 and as vice president for defense and foreign policy studies from 1995 to 2011. He is the author of eight and the editor of 10 books on international affairs, including America’s Coming War with China: A Collision Course over Taiwan. Barbara Conry, former associate policy analyst at the Cato Institute, was a public relations consultant at Hensley Segal Rentschler and an expert on security issues in the Middle East, Western Europe, and Central Asia.