| Does a Multi-tier NATO Matter? The Atlantic Alliance and the Process of Strategic Change
Noetzel, Timo; Scheer, Benjamin
International Affairs, March 2009, v85, #2, pp211-226 (PDF)
"Is NATO on a path to disintegration and, ultimately, to failure? This article argues that the organization has developed from a fixed ‘two-tier’ into a
rather fluid ‘multi-tier’ alliance. On many issues the alliance 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 ‘reversal’- oriented 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 article finds that if NATO is to maintain strategic vitality, it needs to develop new institutional mechanisms and establish a consensus on its strategic posture in the changing international order and to make ‘variable geometry’ work."
Timo Noetzel is TAPIR-Fellow at RAND. Benjamin Scheer works at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).
Go to the article at:
http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/13550_85_2noetzel_schreer.pdf
F13/02-09, posted April 27, 2009
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