THE NATO EXPANSION IN EUROPE – ALLIANCE OF LIBERAL STATES

Abstract

Alliances are common in the world history. In the framework of international relations, several theoretical explanations were applied to answer the questions of why and how states enter into alliances. The traditional approach explains the concept of alliance through the assumptions of the theory of balance of power. Game theory is also a theoretical approach to analyze the behavior of states used in academic and strategic analysis. In this paper, the basic assumption about the behavior of the states of the collective West is the theory of balance of threat. In the geographical sense, the subject of analysis is Eastern and South-Eastern Europe as a response to the behavior of the states. When faced with a significant external threat, states can balance or join. Balancing is defined as an alliance with other states against a current threat; the association is brought to the association with the source of danger. This theory is presented through an analysis of state decisions on critical issues in the international security depending on whether states balance or join by Stephen Walt, systematically exposed in the capital work The Origin of Alliances. (Волт, 2009) In this paper, the subject of analysis is the expansion of the NATO pact after the end of the Cold War, trying to give answers to the question of why the countries of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe "joined" this military alliance after the fall of the "Iron Curtain". Keywords: alliance; balance; international security; Russian Federation