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FORTHCOMING - Multi-tier NATO. The Atlantic Alliance in the 21st Century
January 2011
Throughout the last 60 years the world's most powerful military alliance has been a remarkable success story. However, today there appears to be a widening strategic rift among the allies. Evidently, NATO increasingly struggles to reach consensus on a whole range of strategic issues. So is the alliance on a path to disintegration and, ultimately, to failure?
The book argues that the organization has developed into a fluid 'multi-tier' alliance. On many issues NATO is in fact divided into several different camps that are pushing in different directions. Thus, allies can be grouped into one of three tiers: a 'reformist', a 'status-quo' and a 'neo-traditionalist' one. While the evolution of such a multi-tier alliance will not inevitably result in NATO's demise unmanaged this manifestation of camps will continuously disrupt the organization's strategic agility.
The book finds that if NATO is to maintain strategic vitality, it needs to develop new institutional mechanisms and to make 'variable geometry' work.
Table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. The New Strategic Environment: Material and Ideational Changes in World Politics and its Consequences for NATO
3. Multi-tier NATO
4. The Reformist Tier
5. The Status-Quo Tier
6. The Neo-Traditionalist Tier
7. Conclusion
About the Authors
Timo Noetzel is a Research Group Leader at the Centre of Excellence at the University of Konstanz. He is also a Fellow of the stiftung neue verantwortung, Berlin and Senior Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference.
Tobias Bunde is a doctoral candidate at the Centre of Excellence at the University of Konstanz and Assistant to the Senior Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference.
For more information on the book please contact Publications.
Project The Future of NATO >>
Author(s): Timo Noetzel and Tobias Bunde
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