Is NATO still NATO ?

NATO's survival following the end of the Cold War contradicts the postulate of realists, according to whom military alliances are destined to collapse with the disappearance of the threat they are intended to counter. The Organization has even made a fundamental value out of its ability to transform itself, an ability that seems to have been demonstrated by its unprecedented humanitarian and military operations and its enlargement to include new members. The central dynamic at work here is the transformation of an alliance defending Europe and North America into a crisis management organization that above all intervenes outside of its territory. Yet what permits NATO to survive is the institutionalization of certain arrangements favoring stability : a permanent bureaucracy and command structure, the relative homogeneity of its members (which are now all democracies) and a decision-making process marked by the preeminence of the United States and respect for sovereignty by the principle of unanimity. The Organization's transformation is nevertheless limited by divergences within its ever-growing and more diverse membership and by the inertia of the organizational apparatus. Studying change within NATO shows that the various types of change that can affect an international organization - its structure, membership and normative and cognitive dimensions - do not necessarily go without saying. Reproduced by permission of Bibliothèque de Sciences Po