NATO transformed : the Alliance's new roles in international security /

A brilliantly written, insightful, and cautionary tale of a major dilemma for the post-Cold War NATO. According to Yost, as NATO embraces collective security (an all-embracing temptation to intervene in and out of Europe for stabilization, democratization, and/or humanitarian purposes--Wilsonian idealism revisited), in addition to its traditional role of collective defense (allies providing defense of territory and facilitating regional stability, prosperity, and prudent and ideologically coherent expansion of membership), NATO risks an overextension that may endanger its primary security purpose. Weaving history and current application, Yost writes as good an introductory chapter as this reviewer has ever read. He follows with a brief chapter that incisively captures NATO during the Cold War and its aftermath. He devotes two carefully argued chapters on NATO's new European peace, defining and building roles--cooperation with Russia and other non-NATO nations and crisis management and peace operations. He next discusses the great challenge of assuring collective defense in light of potential threats to NATO's political cohesion and military effectiveness, deriving from neo-Wilsonian aspirations for international peace and order via its expanding collective security role in and around Europe. Overall, a brilliant and insightful analysis, conducive to great discussion among scholars, students, and sundry diplomats. Great for courses on foreign and military policy. L. S. Hulett Knox College