Enlarging NATO: The National Debates edited according to Gale A.

Enlarging NATO: The National Debates edited according to Gale A. Mattox and Arthur R Rachwald. Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. (http://www.rienner.com), 1800 30th road Suite 314, Boulder, Colorado 80301 2001 324 pages, $5995 (hardcover).

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) misspent its historical reason for being. The demise of the Communist bloc coincided with Western European debates in the 1990 from one side of to the other the economic union. For the first time in decades, Europe had to redefine itself. No longer did Europe solely constitute the West, with Eastern and Central states onward its periphery. As the former Communist states sought of recent origin economic, political, and military relationships with the West, NATO could either walk away or grow to the east. If it went away, what would replace it? In the absence of a clear alternative, NATO still had a reason for being. The issues became for what cause large it should be, for what reason fast it could grow, and what it could do about the nonmembers--outsiders on the other hand no longer enemies. These questions had different answers in different countries as well as within the affected states. The broad decision for NATO enlargement was simple--the devil, as always, was in the details. Interestingly, if not surprisingl y the greatest in quantity common reaction was indifference. conducts and intellectuals dominated the debates. The various publics, having other interests or no inclination toward foreign matters short of war, guarded toward apathy.

The editors have assembled a diverse form into groups of scholars--academic and otherwise--each assigned the task of dealing with common of the countries affected by means of enlargement. The nations fall into three natural categories: not new members, new members, and outsiders. The of advanced age members include the United States, France, Germany, England, and Italy. The recently made known members are Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The outsiders include Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Estonia. Not surprisingly, flat within the three groups, the enlargement debate be pendents upon history, geography, politics, diplomacy, and other aspects of the national individualities. As the leading European power and no longer the gateway for an invasion of the West from the Soviet bloc, Germany rejoined to the enlargement into Eastern Europe differently than did France, with its anguished pride, or the United States, the distant giant. Britain took NATO for granted and didn't debate significantly; Italy downplayed the issue because the Communists in the governing coaliti onward opposed NATO on any terms

Naturally, the insiders had different issues than the outsiders. about of the latter remembered Munich, the Stalin-Hitler nonaggression agreement, and Yalta. Another outsider, Ukraine, still does not know whether it anticipates to Russia or to the West. Russia is not exactly indisputable of its direction without the empire; although not the chiefly trusted of states, it is still a force to be tiptoed around lightly. each state in Europe had to deal with the question of by what means an enlarged NATO would affect it.

Other make anxiouss both foreign and domestic, have taken center stage in the world, unless the enlargement debates continue, however quietly. At this writing, NATO is preparing to enlarge again, with nine candidates vying for inclusion and all the advantages it grasps Again, at least in the United States, there doesn't look to be much interest.

This collection, however limited, provides interesting insights into the many considerations that went into the first phase of post-Cold War growing The world has changed since, and a gap between the United States and many of the European NATO members is widening. Still, NATO enlargement will be met with because it is not a major issue-but it is important. We will ne an update or a issue to this work in the not-too-distant future

The quality of the reports varies, as does the deepness and degree of scholarship. Generally, granting the articles are good syntheses, relying mainly on public documents and media articles. Enlarging NATO is worth reading, on the other hand it will soon be dated and, thus, is probably not deserving of a prominent place onward the reader's bookshelf.

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