The Nations of NATO

Abstract War has come back in Europe, and NATO stands at the forefront of the response to Russia’s aggression of Ukraine. But how does NATO function? How do NATO member states perceive and act through the Atlantic Alliance? And, in the end, how do states shape NATO’s cohesion and relevance in the face of threats? The Nations of NATO is concerned with national policies within the Atlantic Alliance. It examines the foreign policies of sixteen allies, looking inter alia at their strategic cultures, relationship with the United States, contributions to NATO operations, levels of defence spending, domestic challenges, and decision-making processes. The recent Ukraine crisis has not doubt reinvigorated NATO as a military alliance. Yet, over the past decade, the Alliance has also been affected by a number of challenges, both endogenous and exogenous. Whether the Alliance is threatened from the outside (Russia, terrorism, China) or is being undermined from within (intra-Alliance politics, diverging threat perceptions) has become an increasingly debated issue. The degree of adaptation of the Alliance to evolving threats has also been at stake. At the heart of these debates are NATO allies’ policies, preferences, threat perceptions, and level of commitment to the shared enterprise. This book provides a critical overview of NATO’s current shape by looking at the policies of the allies. Through the analysis of the drivers, constraints, and specificities of national policies vis-à-vis the Alliance, it offers a conspectus of NATO’s contemporary functions and challenges and constitutes an important source of data for future research and comparative analysis.