NATO Expansion: Reviving the Bush Democracy Agenda

In his stirring Second Inaugural Address, President Bush vowed that it is “the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.” Troubles in the Iraq war, however, have instigated a broader sense of national cynicism in the President’s democracy agenda. This is unfortunate. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, liberal democracies have demonstrated a remarkable ability to attain economic prosperity, protect human rights, and secure a zone of peace and stability in the global system. With the military tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States must nevertheless use its diplomatic leverage to keep democracy promotion on the international agenda. NATO expansion offers the United States precisely such an opportunity. Given its success as a democratic security alliance in the last six decades, NATO could function as an effective global security alliance by expanding to include stable democracies around the world.

Throughout the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) served as a bulwark in Europe against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact by providing a security guarantee for Western democracies. The origins of NATO can be traced to the Treaty of Brussels, signed in 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom. The treaty established a military alliance, later to become the Western European Union. However, American participation was deemed necessary in order to counter the rising aggression of the Soviet Union. The talks resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed in 1949. It included the five Treaty of Brussels states, the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Three years later, Greece and Turkey joined. Though France left the integrated military command in 1966, it rejoined in 1995. The incorporation of West Germany into the organization in 1955 effectively set the stage for the Cold War, as the Soviet Union and its satellite states established the Warsaw Pact in response. Until the end of the Cold War, Spain, in 1982, was the only new country to join the alliance.

The core of NATO is Article V, which provides that an attack against any member of the alliance will be considered an attack against all. As an alliance, NATO’s success has been astounding; through the darkest days of the Cold War it arguably deterred westward aggression by the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact through a strong commitment to détente in Europe. Moreover, the alliance played a crucial role in stabilizing and democratizing the formerly authoritarian regimes of Germany and Italy. In providing an anchor for the rest of Europe, NATO reinforced newly formed democratic institutions and subdued any revival of expansionist sentiment.

Since the Warsaw Pact dissolved in 1991, NATO has experienced a gradual and still ongoing expansion into Eastern Europe and has taken on a more proactive role in global security. The first post-Cold War expansion of NATO came with the reunification of Germany. In 1994, NATO took its first military action against Serbia, ending the war in Bosnia through the Dayton Agreement. Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums of regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbors were established, such as the Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue initiative and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. In 1997, three former communist countries, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland, accepted NATO membership, and joined the alliance in 1999. The same year, NATO launched its first broad-scale military engagement in Kosovo, waging an air campaign against Yugoslavia. The conflict ended when Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic agreed to NATO’s demands by accepting UN resolution 1244. NATO’s operation and geographical scope increased after 9/11. NATO invoked Article V and took command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, the first time it took on a mission outside the north Atlantic. Membership was further expanded with the accession of seven Eastern European countries in 2004: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania.