NATO: The Creation And Survival Of NATO

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The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or NATO was established in 1949 with the aim to provide security to its members against the Soviet Union. However, with the end of Cold war and subsequent disintegration of Soviet Union, NATO’s raison de’tre came into question. While some IR theories spelt doomsday for NATO, others hoped that it can sustain by adapting itself and riding on the ‘collective identity’ it created within the alliance. NATO not only sustained but also expanded its scope of operations and memberships post the Cold war. The essay will engage with various theories of International Relation to explain the creation and survival of NATO. In the process, the essay will also try to look into the design and decision-making process at …show more content…

From that perspective, realism plays a role crucial in explaining why NATO was created amid the geopolitical contest between the East and the West and between the Soviet Union and the West. According to the realism alliances are a response to ‘the existence of an external threat.’ Realism as an IR theory was used extensively by scholars to dissect the events of the Cold War years as it gives powerful explanations for war, alliances in a bi-polar world. However, realism has its limitations; Through the bi-polar power alignment lens of realism, NATO would not survive in the absence of the Soviet Union …show more content…

For neo-realism the presence of a common threat and a bi-polar power structure is imperative for the existence of NATO. End of the cold war resulted in an unipolar world order that, according to neo-realists, doesn 't justify the existence of NATO. NATO ‘might persist on paper but it would [cease] to function as an alliance. ' Waltz in 1993 wrote that 'NATO 's days are not numbered, but its years are.’ However, NATO’s durability has led some of them to revise their positions. Waltz argued that NATO cannot be considered as the same entity anymore, as it has changed considerably from the end of the Cold War. However, Waltz conceded that ‘it is the old purpose of NATO that has disappeared not NATO

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