Transatlantic relations, multilateralism and the transformation of NATO

When the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact collapsed at the beginning of the 1990s, NATO lost its most important raison d’être: to counter the communist military threat to, and deter a possible attack on, western Europe. This landmark change forced the Western alliance to redefine its relationship to the former enemy, to reappraise its security environment, and to review its organizational set-up, its force structure, and its security strategies and policies.