NS4037 NATO

This advanced seminar is a colloquium on the past and present policy and strategy of NATO via an examination of its leading crises from 1949 until 2003 in an effort to understand the nature of alliances in the Euro-Atlantic world, their strategies and issues of cohesion amid crisis. The class examines such themes as: a.) the evolution of ideas in the formulation of alliance statecraft and strategy; b.) the dimension of burden sharing in alliance statecraft and bi-lateral relations; c.) the problems of defense and military transformation in the past, especially connected with alliance politics and political biography; d.) the past instances of severe discord in national strategy and alliance statecraft with enduring importance for the essence of NATO; the modalities of NATO enlargement in the era 1989-1999 and beyond; the post-1990 shift from forward defense in central Europe to the rise of peace enforcement operations in S.E. Europe. Finally, attention is also given to the issues of the present connected with the role of NATO in ongoing security operations on a wide front. This class is taught in a colloquium format; further, it requires an additional book report and the preparation of large synthetic essay on the sum of the readings. Prerequisites: None

Lecture Hours

4

Lab Hours

0

Statement Of Course Objectives

Course Learning Outcomes

• Assess the continuities and key changes that have shaped NATO in each of its key moments or stages.
• Critically examine the roles, means, and inspirations of various member states in and for the alliance over time.
• Evaluate the merits, logic, and implications of the arguments of various scholars and others chiming in on the efficacy of NATO today and tomorrow.
• Synthesize the prevailing arguments about the endurance of NATO.