Congressional Views on NATO Enlargement: Limited Domestic Interest with Few Votes to Gain

At NATO's 2014 Wales Summit, the alliance, across a number of issue-areas, reaffirmed its interest in expanding its outreach activities and partnerships. Whether it is the possibility of new partnerships on missile defense, the improvement of NATO's Naval and cyber-defense capabilities to work more effectively with other international organizations, partners, or non-partner states, or in general the backing for new partnerships, the Wales Summit Declaration expressed broad sentiment for an increasingly global military organization (Edstrom, Haaland and Petersson 2011). On future enlargement plans, most significantly the document states: NATO's door will remain open to all European democracies which share the values of our Alliance, which are willing and able to assume the responsibilities and obligations of membership, which are in a position to further the principles of the Treaty, and whose inclusion will contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area. We reaffirm our strong commitment to the Euro-Atlantic integration of the partners that aspire to join the Alliance, judging each on its own merits (Wales Summit Declaration 2014). Adapted from the source document.