The Long Entanglement: NATO's First Fifty Years / Edition 1

by Lawrence Kaplan

Overview

The fiftieth anniversary of the long entanglement between the United States and NATO is an appropriate occasion to reflect. One of the few NATO studies to concentrate on the history of the alliance, particularly the relationship between its senior partner and its European allies, this study examines critical issues in depth, to uncover the ability of the allies to surmount their internal divisions and to confront their Soviet adversary. While NATO archives are still not fully open, the use of declassified documents from the National Archives and the presidential libraries are of invaluable assistance in considering the historical role of America in the alliance, and the continuing relevance of the organization in U.S. foreign policy.

The twelve chapters of this book, provide analyses of important issues in the organization's history, and are connected by brief contexual narratives. The resulting picture depicts a fifty-year history in which the difficulties in arriving at a consensus among the fifteen allies, each understandably concerned with its own national interests, rival those of the alliance in dealing with the Communist threat. The implosion of the Soviet empire in the early 1990s left the organization in search of new reasons for its own existence. While centrifugal forces are arguably greater today than they were during the Cold War, none of the allies seeks to terminate this long entanglement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275964191
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/30/1999
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.58(d)
Lexile:	1510L (what's this?)

About the Author

LAWRENCE S. KAPLAN is University Professor Emeritus of History and Director Emeritus of the Lyman L. Lemnitzer Center for NATO and European Union Studies at Kent State University. He is currently Adjunct Professor of History at Georgetown University./e He was formerly a member of the Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense. During his tenure at Kent State he was a Fulbright Lecturer at the Universities of Bonn, Louvain, and Nice, as well as a visiting lecturer at University College London.

Table of Contents

Origins of the Alliance, 1948-1949
An Unequal Triad
The "Atlantic" Component of NATO
The Mutal Defense Assistance Act of 1949
NATO in the First Generation, 1950-1967
The Impact of Sputnik on NATO
The Berlin Crisis, 1958-1962
Les débats stratégiques
NATO in the Second Generation, 1968-1989
The U.S. and NATO in the Johnson Years
NATO and the Nixon Doctrine
The INF Treaty and the Future of NATO
NATO in the Third Generation, from 1991
NATO after the Cold War
NATO at Fifty
NATO: A Counterfactual History
Appendix: Text of North Atlantic Treaty
Bibliographical Essay
Index

Editorial Reviews

In a collection of 12 essays, most developed as conference proceedings, linked by brief narratives, Kaplan (history, Kent State U.) provides a more detailed history of the organization than is generally available. His account is based on newly declassified documents in the US National Archives and the presidential libraries, and focuses on the US involvement. He appends the original 1949 document and includes a bibliographic essay. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Booknews