Nato‐where next?

Abstract

In the run‐up to the forthcoming NATO Summit, Field Marshal Sir Richard Vincent reflects upon factors likely to influence the further development of the Alliance in the changed international circumstances, of the post‐Cold War environment. The new Strategic Concept, agreed at the Rome Summit of 1991, remains fixed upon the crucial need to maintain an adequate military capability and readiness to act collectively. The establishment of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC) highlights NATO's awareness of the need to develop a cooperation programme with the emerging democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, which itself raises the issue of the possible expansion of the Alliance. Needless to say, the critical role of NATO in peacekeeping operations is assessed, before the author concludes that evolution and not revolution is the necessary force for taking NATO into 1994 and beyond.