ABSTRACT
Entering 2001, the two summits scheduled by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) for late 2002 were expected to start the final phase of the Euro-Atlantic vision that had been launched after World War II, and pursued throughout the Cold War. While the Atlantic Alliance is affected by the transformation of post-World Wars Europe, as Americans came to rediscover it after 1917, the post-Cold War North Atlantic Treaty Organization has also evolved. Accordingly the second wave of NATO enlargement seemed to raise little interest. Allies in Europe, openly focused on the EU and its ambitious agenda, were ready to follow the US lead as of the moment when that leadership would be exerted. The limits of NATO as the security institution of choice, but also its unparalleled potential over that of any ad hoc alliance were reinforced by the events of September 11, 2001, and the "new normalcy" of "post-modern conflicts" it threatened to inaugurate.
