This book provides an overview of what has happened to NATO from the closing stages of the Cold War to the new era of international terrorism. However, it is more than that. It also argues that NATO has travelled a course that contradicts the prevailing image of an organization in decline and crisis. NATO must be crafted by its members to fit the security environment in which it operates. Rynning argues that the allies did this poorly in the mid-90s but have succeeded better in the past few years. NATO has persisted into this new era because it has overcome a crisis of identity in the 90s and is on track to establish a viable model for flexible transatlantic security cooperation.

Alliances and Change
The Ambiguous Alliance, 1989-1997
The Demise of Collective Security, 1997-2001
Toward a Coalition Framework, 2001-2005
Conclusion

STEN RYNNING is Associate Professor in International Relations at the Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark. He is a former Fulbright and NATO Research Fellow. He is the author of Changing Military Doctrine: Presidents and Military Power in Fifth Republic France, 1958-2000 (2002), editor of the Journal of Transatlantic Studies' special issue on NATO (Spring 2005) and co-editor of Missile Defense: US Security Policy and Regional Dynamics (2005).