An Expanded NATO Confronts Terrorism and Instability

Abstract

Recent expansion of NATO to include new members is inextricably linked to the twenty-first century battle against terrorism and instability. The sharp increase in membership after 1999 offered new capabilities to the alliance but also created additional complications and challenges in that battle. The new members played an immediate role in critical operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Bosnia. They enhanced alliance capabilities such as the NATO Reaction Force. Plans developed for possible location of U.S. military bases in new alliance partners such as Poland and the Czech Republic. NATO leaders expanded the Partnership for Peace Program to Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In fact, transformation of NATO from an organization designed to counter the Soviet threat into an alliance that managed the battle against terrorism in Afghanistan had taken place by late 2006. At the same time, the costs that accompanied the deepened involvement in the current struggle against violence and instability raised profoundly difficult questions for both publics and governments in the new member states.