This book addresses the challenges of adaptation confronting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the early twenty-first century. Comprised of essays from a range of experts, each chapter examines an aspect of NATO's difficult adjustment to the post-Cold War security challenges within and without its treaty-based responsibilities and competencies. This volume offers the basis for guarded optimism that NATO will persist and continue to perform its twin functions of collective defense and deterrence into the foreseeable future, despite the periodic crises that temporarily cast its future into doubt.

Introduction : A stable crisis? NATO into the twenty-first century / James Sperling -- 1. Collective defense, nuclear deterrence, and operations. Collective defense and new nuclear deterrence / Sean Kay -- NATO's post-Cold War operations in Europe / Mark Webber -- Out of business? NATO in Afghanistan / Stanley Kober -- 2. NATO's global reach. The twilight of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization : the Russian problem / Melvin A. Goodman -- NATO and the southern and eastern Mediterranean / Yannis A. Stivachtis -- The Black Sea region / Stephen J. Blank -- NATO's global reach : the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean / Nathan J. Lucas -- 3. NATO and institutional overlap : the UN, OSCE, and EU. NATO and a revitalized United Nations? / Lawrence S. Kaplan -- The OSCE : surviving NATO and the end of the Cold War / Dennis J.D. Sandole -- The European Union : pillar or pole of power in a multiplayer world? / Stanley R. Sloan -- Conclusion : What does NATO's new strategic concept say about the future of the alliance? / Jamie Shea.