ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the prospects for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in dealing with its new security environment. It focuses on collective defense and collective security as a possible alternative in the new environment. The chapter discusses the possibility that, failing an embrace of collective security, the less ambitious agenda of peacekeeping might provide a viable role for the organization. The initial rationale of NATO was collective defense against a perceived shared Soviet threat. In this respect, NATO was a typical alliance. Many associated with the alliance see NATO's post-Cold War role to lie in participation in an evolving structure of collective security in Europe. The alliance has identified peacekeeping, including support of the United Nations, as a future role. The prospects of NATO transforming itself into what some are calling the UN's peacekeeping "subcontractor" are extremely uncertain. NATO powers face serious security problems in Eastern Europe. The alliance's traditional purpose—that of collective defense—is difficult to defend.
