ABSTRACT
By the 1990s the North Atlantic alliance had surpassed, in size and duration, every other peacetime alliance in history. It had been formed as a counterweight to Soviet military power in Europe; and its future seemed uncertain now that eastern Europe was no longer under Soviet control and western Europe no longer feared Soviet domination. Yet new conflicts in Europe led to new calls for its services. The first combat operations ever carried out under its formal control were air strikes in 1994-5 against Bosnian Serbs, followed by management of the 60,000-strong peacekeeping force in Bosnia (15). Between 1999 and 2004, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) contributed to similar efforts in Kosovo, Macedonia and Afghanistan. After the 2001 terror attacks in the USA, NATO for the first time invoked article 5 of its founding treaty (an attack on one member is an attack on all), obligating all members to aid in actions against the terrorists.
