ABSTRACT
This chapter examines President George W. Bush's conduct of relations with the US's core security allies in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). European security was one of the earliest issues on the Bush administration's foreign policy agenda, as the president faced up to whether or not to implement a campaign commitment to begin the withdrawal of American forces committed to NATO-led stabilization operations in the Balkans. What Bush and his advisers evidently failed to appreciate was the extent to which the multinational Balkans peacekeeping missions had become important for most of NATO's European member states. Ending the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict in particular was seen as a key litmus test of the alliance's post-Cold War utility and credibility. By the early autumn of 2001 it seemed to some that the Bush administration's disrespect for established norms of consultation with European allies was in danger of affecting even NATO.
