NATO after 9 11: An Alliance in Continuing Decline

Despite fifteen years of concerted effort to remake NATO, the much heralded alliance is in decline. The states that established NATO in 1949 confronted a common threat to their survival. The Alliance has endeavored to identify a new raison d'tre since 1991, but no unifying set of priorities has surfaced.

Though dangers to Western security have emerged--the rise of Al Qaeda arguably the most significant--these threats have not unified NATO. In the absence of a menace to their vital interests, and with fundamental policy differences dividing North America and Europe, NATO is succumbing to the pressure of the times.