Council Special Report The Future of NATO Teaching Notes By James M. Goldgeier Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations, Council on Foreign Relations; Author, The Future of NATO If the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) did not exist today, the United States would not seek to create it. In 1949, it made sense in the face of a potential Soviet invasion to forge a bond in the North Atlantic area among the United States, Canada, and the Western European states. Today, if the United States were starting from scratch in a world of transnational threats, the debate would be over whether to follow liberal and neoconservative calls for a global alliance of democracies or to develop a great power concert envisioned by Realists to uphold the current international order. However, United States is not starting from scratch, and NATO can still play a valuable role in world affairs. The Allies share a common interest in preventing disruptions to the global economy, including attacks on freedom of navigation. As a community of democracies, the member states are threatened by forces such as Islamic extremism and the rise of authoritarian states. NATO also helps provide the United States with legitimacy for overseas action, and it gives Europe the ability to project hard power. While NATO alone cannot defend against the range of threats facing its member states, it can serve as the hub for American and European leaders to develop the ties with other potential partners to provide for a common defense. The Council on Foreign Relations Academic Initiative is designed to connect educators and students at the college and graduate level with CFR s research and nonpartisan analysis. For more information, visit www.cfr.org/educators/.
Although many observers expected NATO to disappear with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the alliance today is busier than ever fighting a war in Afghanistan, countering piracy off the coast of Somalia, and conducting peacekeeping operations in the Balkans. From sixteen members at the end of the Cold War, it grew to twenty-eight by its sixtieth anniversary summit in 2009, and now covers much of the European continent. This report is suitable for the following types of undergraduate or graduate courses: U.S. foreign policy International organizations European security International security These teaching notes discuss questions and suggestions for further projects, which may be useful for students in any of the courses above. Discussion Questions Courses on U.S. Foreign Policy 1. Why does the United States continue to defend Europe? 2. How does NATO provide legitimacy for U.S. military actions? 3. What is NATO s role in Afghanistan? 4. What would cause the United States to lose interest in NATO? Courses on International Organizations: 1. Why did NATO not disappear after the end of the Cold War? 2. What, if any, are potential obstacles to greater NATO-European Union cooperation? 3. Some argue that NATO is not just a military alliance, but also a political organization. Do you agree? 4. Should NATO develop non-military capacities such as the ability to defend countries against cyber attack?
Courses on European Security: 1. What is NATO s Article V? What were the implications of Article V in 1949 versus the implications of today? 2. Why don t European countries spend more on their own defense? 3. How does the dispute between Turkey and Cyprus affect NATO and EU operations? 4. What are the main threats to Europe? Is Russia still a threat to NATO? Is NATO a threat to Russia? Courses on International Security: 1. If NATO is a regional organization, what is its role in Afghanistan? 2. Why do NATO s leaders call it the most successful alliance in history? 3. Is the notion of a military alliance an anachronism in the twenty-first century? What are the threats that member states face and how do those threats differ from those faced during the Cold War? 4. What does the phrase global NATO mean? Is global NATO desirable?
Further Projects Memorandum 1. Have students represent different member countries of NATO. If the exercise takes place before the November 2010 NATO summit, ask them to write a two-page memo to their head of state offering their opinion of what should be in NATO s strategic concept. If the exercise takes place after the summit, ask them to write a two-page memo to their head of state analyzing what the document means for their country s future role within NATO. 2. Ask students to imagine a world today in which NATO did not exist. Have them write a two-page memo to the president explaining what type of security institution(s) would best secure U.S. interests given the threats of the twenty-first century. Would the student recommend creation of an alliance like NATO? Short Writing Assignment Ask students to pick a non-nato member country that has personnel in Afghanistan and ask them to write a short paper explaining why that country is involved in Afghanistan and what that country s relationship with NATO is.
Supplementary Materials NATO official website, www.nato.int Albright, Madeleine K. and Jeroen van der Veer, Report of the Group of Experts on NATO s Strategic Concept, Public Diplomacy Division, NATO, May 17, 2010. Brzezinski, Zbigniew, An Agenda for NATO, Foreign Affairs, September/October 2009. Chalmers, Malcolm and Simon Lunn, NATO s Tactical Nuclear Dilemma, Occasional Paper, Royal United Services Institute, March 2010. Chivvis, Christopher S., Recasting NATO s Strategic Concept: Possible Directions for the United States, Occasional Paper, RAND, 2009. Clinton, Hillary Rodham, Madeleine K. Albright, Chuck Hagel, and Fred Kempe, NATO s Future, Event Transcript, Atlantic Council of the United States, February 22, 2010. Daalder, Ivo and James Goldgeier, Global NATO, Foreign Affairs, September/October 2006. Gates, Robert M., NATO Strategic Concept Seminar (Future of NATO), Remarks, U.S. Department of Defense, February 23, 2010. Kramer, Mark, The Myth of a No-NATO-Enlargement Pledge to Russia, The Washington Quarterly, April 2009. Morelli, Vincent and Paul Belkin, NATO in Afghanistan: A Test of the Transatlantic Alliance, Congressional Research Service Report, December 3, 2009. de Nevers, Renee, NATO s International Security Role in the Terrorist Era, International Security, Spring 2007. Smith, Julianne, The NATO-Russia Relationship: Defining Moment of Déjà vu? Center for Strategic and International Studies, November 2008.