NATO's Return to Europe

NATO's 2010 Strategic Concept officially broadened the alliance's mission beyond collective defense, reflecting a peaceful Europe and changes in alliance activities. NATO had become an international security facilitator, a crisis-manager even outside Europe, and a liberal democratic club as much as a mutual-defense organization. However, Russia's re-entry into great power politics has changed NATO's strategic calculus. Russia's aggressive annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its ongoing military support for Ukrainian separatists dramatically altered the strategic environment and called into question the liberal European security order. States bordering Russia, many of which are now NATO members, are worried, and the alliance is divided over assessments of Russia's behavior. Against the backdrop of Russia's new assertiveness, an international group of scholars examines a broad range of issues in the interest of not only explaining recent alliance developments but also making recommendations about critical choices confronting the NATO allies. While a renewed emphasis on collective defense is clearly a priority, this volume's contributors caution against an overcorrection, which would leave the alliance too inwardly focused, play into Russia's hand, and exacerbate regional fault lines always just below the surface at NATO. This volume places rapid-fire events in theoretical perspective and will be useful to foreign policy students, scholars, and practitioners alike.

List of Illustrations Foreword by Nicholas Burns Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Alliance, Identity, and Geopolitics Rebecca R. Moore and Damon Coletta 1. Force Posture after NATO's Return to Europe: Too Little, Too Late John R. Deni 2. NATO's Return: Implications for Extended Deterrence Schuyler Foerster 3. NATO's Enlargement Policy to Ukraine and Beyond: Prospects and Options Andrew T. Wolff 4. NATO's Territorial Defense: The Global Approach and the Regional Approach Magnus Petersson 5. Still Learning? NATO's Afghan Lessons beyond the Ukraine Crisis Sten Rynning 6. European Security at a Crossroads after Ukraine? Institutionalization of Partnerships and Compliance with NATO's Security Policies Ivan Dinev Ivanov 7. The Purpose of NATO Partnership: Sustaining Liberal Order beyond the Ukraine Crisis Rebecca R. Moore 8. NATO- Russia Technical Cooperation: Unheralded Prospects Damon Coletta 9. The Ukraine Crisis and Beyond: Strategic Opportunity or Strategic Dilemma for the China- Russia Strategic Partnership? Huiyun Feng Conclusion and Comment: NATO's Ever- Evolving Identity Stanley R. Sloan List of Contributors Index