ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes what was at stake and what it took to reach the new Alliance Strategic Concept in Rome in November 1991. It describes the European Community, and the Western European Union, and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe each faced the equivalent of the post-containment reform challenge in their particular context. The advocates of an independent European Security and Defence Identity like France, and increasingly Germany, needed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) strength for the interim period. The assessment of risks and the several security functions shed light on NATO's new political dimension and provide the rationale for changes in the organization of its military structure. NATO's new defense structure exhibits the tension between quitting containment and remaining ready for residual risks. Given the lack of consensus on a NATO role in Central and Eastern Europe, no military capability was intended for the area.
