ABSTRACT
The post-Cold War world is complex, unpredictable and dangerous. During the Cold War global ideological and strategic competition between the United States and the Soviet Union imposed a large degree of discipline on issues of international security. On 4 April 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) was signed in Washington. Within a year, prompted by American determination to see military aid used for collective rather than purely national purposes, the North Atlantic Treaty moved from being a multilateral guaranty pact towards the development of a semi-integrated military organisation known as NATO. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, with over 50 members, covers an impossibly ambitious geographical area. NATO's primary achievement since the Rome Summit of 1991 has been its own survival as an institution despite the absence of a clear common purpose and despite limited success in pursuit of ambiguous and nebulous objectives.
