NATO: History & Current Developments

Overview

This module will offer an overview over the history of the most important alliance system in the world. The module is structured both chronologically and thematically. The first session will deal with the founding treaty: the Washington Treaty of 1949. The History of the genesis is best encapsulated by Lord Ismay saying that the alliance was formed to keep the American in, the Russian out and the Germans down. The second session deals with the formation of the NAT-O, i.e. the organization of NATO. The Paris Treaties created the NATO-WEU framework for the revival of German military power. The following session will deal with the the Nuclear Planning Group (NPG). The formation of the NPG assured participation of the European allies in Western nuclear defense. Hardware solutions of nuclear sharing were restricted to dual key systems. The fourth session focuses on the Europe’s radiating influence on Eastern Europe that had to be contained. NATO’s Harmel exercise harmonized superpower and European détente thus developing a kind of common foreign and security policy towards the Eastern bloc. Week 5 captures NATO’s role in strategic and conventional disarmament. The common approach to the East allowed a shift from co-existence to the co-creation of a Common House of Europe that disaggregated the Iron Curtain and allowed the unification of the European continent. With the fall of the wall and the velvet revolution in Eastern Europe a need to create a pan-European structure emerged that will be dealt with in week 6. NATO and the Warsaw Pact had to transform to serve a new collective security order under the umbrella of the CSCE. However, Europe emancipated itself from its nested Western position and formed the EU. Thus bipolarity waned and herewith the concept of a Europe between the superpowers. This is the topic of week 7. Instead of a pan-European Constitution an architecture of interlocking institutions emerged. Week 8 addresses NATO’s transformation and enlargement. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union NATO embarked on an expansion to fill a security vacuum in the East and to forestall a solitary EU enlargement that would have emancipated Europe. Simultaneously a ESDI emerged that forestalled a duplication of NATO functions by the EU. Week 9 focuses on NATO and 9/11. The War on Terror altered NATO yet again and turned NATO – so Primakov – into the New Anti Terror Organization that intervened i.a. in Afghanistan. The ever expanding remit of NATO threatened its cohesion, thus NATO embarked on an expansion into the post Soviet space that led to the War in Ukraine. The enlargement into the post Soviet space will be the topic of weeks 10, the responses of NATO to Ukraine’s War will be dealt with in the concluding session, i.e week 11. This module will offer a comprehensive overview over the history, structure, tasks of the Alliance over time and thus will prepare the student for any debate on trans-Atlantic issues and US foreign relations after the Second World War. The module will also be indispensable for a comprehension of the Cold War, Cold Peace and New Cold War of the 21st Century.

Learning Objectives

On completion of this module students will:
have a firm grasp of alliances, pluralistic security communities and collective security
be familiar with power, interest and knowledge based regimes
have an advanced knowledge of US foreign policy towards wider Europe
be able to discuss continuity and change in international relations
have a firm knowledge of NATO structure, task, transformation, strategy

Skills

The student will learn
to analyse historic documents
to present their own research in public
to engage in library research and thus enhance their retrieval skills
to apply theoretical prism to historical research (theoretically informed historic writing)
to deal with cultural prizms on European security
to communicate complex questions and thus learn to study with others

Assessment

None