NATO1997     Year of Change

This collection of ideas presents considerations on NATO activities that they expected to follow the NATO heads of government summit in Madrid during July 1997. These papers were attempts, early in 1997, to forecast the work in which our NATO colleagues are now engaged. They focus upon the issues of not only today’s NATO, but also tomorrow’s. It is for the reader to not only digest these remarks, but most importantly, to engage in the dialogue in which the representatives of the 16 NATO nations and the 27 members of the Partnership for Peace now find themselves—a dialogue which will continue not only throughout this decade, but long into the next.

How we see NATO—and its future—depends very much upon where we live—the state of our nations’ economies, the strength of our militaries, the political power of our deliberative and legislative bodies, both internally, and, via legislative and economic power, externally as well. Critical to all of these are the reader’s considerations as citizen, taxpayer, and provider of the nation’s manpower. We urge the reader to decide whether the NATO Alliance has a role in securing peace and prosperity for this and potentially the next generation. The cogency, persuasiveness, and, the biases of those who have contributed herein are provided to inform the public discussion concerning national defense, the freedoms of the democratic world, and the prosperity of the open market economies.

The symposium on which this book is based was successful because of the planning and skillful orchestration of James Graham, Director, Symposia, National Defense University. His work contributed significantly to the production of this volume. The bibliography was compiled by Carolyn Turner and Bruce Thornlow of the National Defense University Library who were members of a research team led by M. Ann Parham and Rosemary Marlowe-Dzuik.