The long entanglement. NATO’s first fifty years

The long entanglement: NATO's first fifty years

This book is a reflection on the long entanglement between the United States and NATO on its fiftieth anniversary. Concentrating on the history of the alliance, and in particular on the relationship between its senior partner and its European allies, this study examines critical issues in depth to uncover the ability of the allies to surmount their internal divisions and to confront their Soviet adversary. Whilst NATO archives are still not fully open, the use of declassified documents from the US National Archives and the presidential libraries have assisted with the consideration of the historical role of America in the alliance and the continuing relevance of the organisation in US foreign policy.

'The long entanglement' is split into four parts: Part I, 'Origins of the alliance, 1948-1949'; Part II, 'NATO in the first generation, 1950-1967'; Part III, 'NATO in the second generation, 1968-1989'; Part IV 'NATO in the third generation, from 1991'. Within this structure, the twelve chapters of the book provide analyses of important issues in the organisation's history and are connected by brief contextual narratives. The resulting picture depicts a fifty year history in which the difficulties in arriving at a consensus among the fifteen allies, each concerned with its own national interests, rival those of the alliance in dealing with the Communist threat. Furthermore, with the implosion of the Soviet empire in the early 1990s, the organisation was left in search of new reasons for its own existence.