Georgetown University Press NATO's Return to Europe: Engaging Ukraine, Russia, and Beyond

NATO's 2010 Strategic Concept officially broadened the alliance's mission beyond collective defense, reflecting a peaceful Europe and changes in alliance activities. NATO had become an international security facilitator, a crisis-manager even outside Europe, and a liberal democratic club as much as a mutual-defense organization. However, Russia's re-entry into great power politics has changed NATO's strategic calculus. Russia's aggressive annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its ongoing military support for Ukrainian separatists dramatically altered the strategic environment and called into question the liberal European security order. States bordering Russia, many of which are now NATO members, are worried, and the alliance is divided over assessments of Russia's behavior. Against the backdrop of Russia's new assertiveness, an international group of scholars examines a broad range of issues in the interest of not only explaining recent alliance developments but also making recommendations about critical choices confronting the NATO allies. While a renewed emphasis on collective defense is clearly a priority, this volume's contributors caution against an overcorrection, which would leave the alliance too inwardly focused, play into Russia's hand, and exacerbate regional fault lines always just below the surface at NATO. This volume places rapid-fire events in theoretical perspective and will be useful to foreign policy students, scholars, and practitioners alike. Review Even those skeptical of NATO's push east will find much value in this excellent compendium of essays on the contemporary challenges facing the alliance.--David Hendrickson, Colorado College Rebecca Moore and Damon Coletta have edited an important and timely collection of studies on the challenges confronting NATO in the wake of Russian intervention in Ukraine. They have drawn on the expertise of seasoned NATO scholars. Their product deserves the close attention of policy makers and teachers of international relations.--Lawrence S. Kaplan, Emeritus Director of the Lyman L. Lemnitzer Center for NATO Studies, Kent State University Sometimes a book arrives at just the right moment. NATO's Return to Europe is one of those books. Rebecca R. Moore and Damon Coletta and an excellent line-up of authors offer a timely and insightful analysis of the many issues facing the Alliance in Trump's and Putin's world.--Trine Flockhart, Professor of International Relations, University of Kent The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is experiencing a range of challenges which are severely testing history's most successful alliance's mission and capacity. A resurgent and irresponsible Russia and its invasion of Ukraine gave NATO new life, but also raised questions about it's capacity for credible deterrent operations while also balancing not risking escalation with Russia. Meanwhile, new pressures for NATO's to focus on collective defense raise questions about the viability of NATO's role in projecting stability outside of Europe, as it has done in Afghanistan, and engaging in the spread of liberal western values. Meanwhile, nationalistic trends in key NATO members--including with the election of Donald Trump as American president, have raised new questions about the alliance''s role and how to achieve burdensharing. In that context, NATO's Return to Europe could not arrive at a more opportune time. This volume brings together scholars with decades of expertise on the alliance while presenting a refreshing new range of emerging voices on transatlantic and European security issues. This book both offers an explanation of what NATO has done well, as well as provides an honest appraisal of the serious challenges confronting the institution and its members. Rebecca Moore and Damon Coletta have masterfully presented a vitally important resource--a must read for practitioners, scholars, and students alike--a must read resource for the study of inter