The first tranche of NATO enlargement-adding Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic next year-will help stabilize an historically unstable region and bring security benefits to all of Europe. Enlargement raises a number of difficult questions. How should enlargement unfold in the future? What should be the standards for selecting new members? Above all, what is NATO trying to achieve by enlarging further? Enlargement needs to be guided by an explicit strategic rationale. Membership should not be granted simply for democratic conduct. Enlargement should occur only when it enhances NATO as a credible military alliance and produces compelling security benefits.

The first tranche of NATO enlargement-adding Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic next year-will help stabilize an historically unstable region and bring security benefits to all of Europe. Enlargement raises a number of difficult questions. How should enlargement unfold in the future? What should be the standards for selecting new members? Above all, what is NATO trying to achieve by enlarging further? Enlargement needs to be guided by an explicit strategic rationale. Membership should not be granted simply for democratic conduct. Enlargement should occur only when it enhances NATO as a credible military alliance and produces compelling security benefits.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949. The treaty was signed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, France, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Today there are a total of 26 countries that belong to NATO. The A to Z of NATO and Other International Security Organizations covers the Atlantic Alliance's origins, structure and organization through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 1,000 cross-referenced dictionary entries on its Secretaries-Generals, its Supreme Allied Commanders-Europe, plus all affiliated organizations created to enhance NATO's reach in a broader Euro-Atlantic security architecture (e.g., North Atlantic Consultative Council, Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, NATO-Russia Charter; NATO-Ukraine Charter, and NATO-Mediterranean Dialogue Partners). This book also covers other related regional organizations with security responsibilities in Europe and worldwide where they interact with NATO, either currently (e.g. ANZUS, ASEAN, European Union, Organization of African Unity, Organization of American States, Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and United Nations) or in the past (e.g. CENTO, European Defence Community, SEATO, Warsaw Pact, and Western European Union).

Since the foundation of the Atlantic Alliance after World War II, the face of world politics, and consequently of NATO, has changed dramatically. NATO after Fifty Years examines, from a wide range of perspectives, the past, present, and future of the alliance, now in the throes of its most uncertain period. The contributors to this volume bring a diversity and breadth of perspectives that will make this book an invaluable teaching tool for courses relating to U.S. defense policy, arms control and the military in politics, international organizations, war and peace, international conflict, and government and politics in Europe.