ABSTRACT
The subject of political and economic alternatives for the future of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an unsettling one, for a number of reasons. The most obvious is the inherent uncertainty—some would say, futility—of speculating about the future, particularly with respect to a vast alliance composed of sixteen states, and hundreds of millions of people, spread over thousands of miles. Two more immediate problems stem from the use of the terms political and economic alternatives. Paradoxically, attempts to clarify problems by separating out "military" from "political" concerns lead only to false dichotomies and hence to intellectual confusion underneath analytical neatness. The cautious willingness of the Federal Republic of Germany to assert its natural weight in NATO affairs, and the slowly growing acceptance of that weight by other NATO members, changes the informal structure of the Alliance.
