The Situation

In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the role and purpose of NATO increasingly came into question. Some claimed that the organization, formed in 1949 to counter the Soviet Union and its nuclear weapons, was now obsolete. Others argued for a renewed and reinvigorated NATO in a post–Cold War world. Others still fell somewhere in the middle, acknowledging the importance of NATO’s role in European security, but urging caution in dealing with a newly subdued Russia. 

The president has called a meeting of the NSC in advance of an important NATO summit in Brussels. He plans to make an announcement detailing his administration’s views on the prospect of NATO enlargement and has convened NSC members to advise him on the matter. 

Concepts 

• Alliances 
• Great power rivalry 
• Balance of power 
• Political and economic ideologies
• Multilateralism 
• Negotiations 

Issues 

• Post–Cold War expansion of the European Union and NATO, and Russia’s relations with these institutions
• U.S.-Europe and U.S.-Russia relations 
• Balance of power in Europe 
• U.S. support for democratic governance
• Current and future challenges in NATO and the European Union 
• Collective defense obligations under the North Atlantic Treaty’s Article 5