ABSTRACT
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) plays a special role as an institution of transatlantic relations. The end of the Cold War put an end to a division of labour that had existed between NATO and the EU. This chapter analyses the impact of the change on European Union (EU)–NATO relations and, on a wider scale, on transatlantic relations. It explains EU–NATO relationship from where it started to how it was subsequently regulated, and proceeds to looking at what problems have been identified in this relationship. The chapter argues that understanding the true nature of these problems is a precondition for solving them. It explores that nation-states are independent actors and that their relations are a meaningful object of analysis. The chapter aims to the debate on multilateralism. It outlines a reading of the problems in EU–NATO relations as instances of the limits of effective multilateralism.
