The Oxford Handbook of NATO

Description

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has since its foundation in 1949 been the principal body of the Western security order, and remains as important in the 2020s as it was in the 1950s. This Handbook offers the most extensive treatment of the Alliance published in the last two decades, providing detailed coverage of NATO allies, policies, and organizational structures. It brings together internationally renowned scholars who interrogate NATO's actions from historical, theoretical, and empirical perspectives.

The Handbook is divided into nine parts. Following an introductory part offering a thematic overview of NATO, framed by different approaches to domestic politics and global order, the second part explores three broad questions - what is NATO for, who is NATO for, and whither NATO? Part Three is more expressly theoretical, providing multi-perspectival analyses of the Alliance. Part Four then turns to how NATO works as a political-military alliance. Parts Five and Six are concerned with what NATO does in practical terms - how it addresses a wide range of security threats and what operations it has mounted in response. Part Seven looks at some of NATO's most significant allies including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Part Eight, meanwhile, is concerned with partnerships and key relationships beyond NATO's membership - looking at Australia, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, China, the European Union, and the European neutrals as well as ties to states in the Gulf, the Middle East, and North Africa. The final part of the volume offers reflections on NATO's recent past and possible lines of future development.

About the editors

James Sperling is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science at the University of Akron, having previously taught at Davidson College and at the James Madison College, Michigan State University. He was named Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute and Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Bologna.

Mark Webber is Professor of International Politics at the University of Birmingham. He was Head of the School of Government at Birmingham from 2011 to 2019 and Chair/Honorary President of the British International Studies Association (BISA) from 2019 to 2023. He is a non-resident fellow at the NATO Defence College in Rome.

Contributors:

Eleonora Ardemagni, Italian Institute for International Political Studies
Cornelia Baciu, University of Copenhagen
Jordan Becker, United States Military Academy, West Point
Florian Böller, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau
Michael Clarke, King's College London and University of Exeter
Andrew Cottey, University College Cork
Roland Dannreuther, University of Westminster
Ian Davis, SIPRI
Linde Desmaele, Free University of Brussels
John R. Deni, US Army War College
Andrew M. Dorman, King's College London
Tom Dyson, Royal Holloway, University of London
Kjell Engelbrekt, Swedish Defence University
Trine Flockhart, European University Institute
Rita Floyd, University of Birmingham
Maryann Foster, US Army War College
Lawrence Freedman, King's College London
Stephan Frühling, Australian National University
Tracey German, King's College London
Alexandra Gheciu, University of Ottawa
James Goldgeier, American University, Washington D.C.
Sebastian Harnisch, Heidelberg University
Ryan C. Hendrickson, Eastern Illinois University
Paal Sigurd Hilde, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies
Stephanie C. Hofmann, European University Institute
Seth A. Johnston, Heidelberg University
Julian Lindley-French, Alphen Group
Wojciech Lorenz, Polish Institute of International Affairs
Maria Mälksoo, University of Copenhagen
Jonathan Marcus, formerly of University of Exeter
Alessandro Marrone, Istituto Affari Internazionali
Sebastian Mayer, OSCE Academy Bishkek
Jeffrey H. Michaels, Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals
Alexander Moens, Simon Fraser University
Tarik Oguzlu, Istanbul Aydin University
R. James Orr, National Defence University, Washington D.C.
Braxton Palmer, Alva Labs Stockholm
Magnus Petersson, Stockholm University
Luca Ratti, University Roma Tre
Alexandra Richards, Simon Fraser University
Jens Ringsmose, University of Southern Denmark
Sten Rynning, University of Southern Denmark
Gabi Schlag, University of Tübingen
Olivier Schmitt, University of Southern Denmark
Ben Schreer, International Institute for Strategic Studies
Jamie Shea, Friends of Europe
Luis Simón, Brussels School of Governance
Stanley R. Sloan, Middlebury College
Martin A. Smith, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Brooke A. Smith-Windsor, RAND Europe
James Sperling, University of Akron
Thierry Tardy, Notre Europe
Matthew Uttley, King's College London
Mark Webber, University of Birmingham
Richard G. Whitman, University of Kent
Michael John Williams, Syracuse University
Andrew T. Wolff, Dickinson College
Katharine A. M. Wright, Newcastle University
David S. Yost, US Naval Postgraduate School
Benjamin Zyla, University of Ottawa

Table of contents

Part I. Context
1:Understanding NATO, James Sperling and Mark Webber
2:Global Order, Trine Flockhart
3:Domestic Politics, Stephanie C. Hofmann and Michael John Williams
Part II. Questions
4:What is NATO for (Redux)?, Michael Clarke
5:Who is NATO for?, Andrew T. Wolff
6:Whither NATO? A History of NATO's Futures, Stanley R. Sloan
Part III. Perspectives
7:Realisms, Seth A. Johnston
8:Liberalisms, Sebastian Harnisch and Florian Böller
9:Security Community: Identity, Practices, and Trust, Alexandra Gheciu
10:Gender, Katharine A. M. Wright
11:Securitization, Desecuritization, and Just Securitization, Rita Floyd
12:Risk, Resilience, and Resistance, Maria Mälksoo
13:Visual Discourses of Identity Making, Gabi Schlag
14:Strategic Culture, Jordan Becker
Part IV. Strategy, Policy, and Command
15:The North Atlantic Treaty, R. James Orr
16:Strategy, Lawrence Freedman and Jeffrey H. Michaels
17:Doctrine, John R. Deni
18:The International Staff, Sebastian Mayer
19:Military and Command Structures, Paal Sigurd Hilde
20:Defence Planning and Force Generation, Maryann Foster
21:Representation and Decision-making, Ian Davis
22:The Secretary General, Ryan C. Hendrickson
Part V. Deterrence, Defence, and Security
23:Nuclear Deterrence, David S. Yost
24:Ballistic Missile Defence, Stephan Frühling
25:Conventional Force Posture, Jens Ringsmose
26:Cybrid Warfare, Julian Lindley-French
27:Non-Traditional Security Threats, Jamie Shea
28:COVID-19, Crisis Management, and Civil Emergency Response, Cornelia Baciu
29:Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, James Sperling
30:Burden-sharing, Benjamin Zyla
Part VI. Operations
31:Bosnia, Jonathan Marcus
32:Kosovo, Martin A. Smith
33:Libya, Kjell Engelbrekt and Braxton Palmer
34:Afghanistan, Sten Rynning
35:Maritime Operations, Brooke A. Smith-Windsor
36:Counter-terrorism and Projecting Stability, Thierry Tardy
37:Forward Deployment and Reassurance, Linde Desmaele and Luis Simón
Part VII. Key Allies
38:The United States, James Goldgeier
39:The United Kingdom, Andrew M. Dorman and Matthew Uttley
40:France, Olivier Schmitt
41:Germany, Tom Dyson
42:Italy, Luca Ratti
43:Poland, Wojciech Lorenz
44:Turkey, Tarik Oguzlu
Part VIII. Key Relationships
45:Partnerships, Magnus Petersson
46:The European Union, Richard G. Whitman
47:The European Neutrals, Andrew Cottey
48:Georgia and Ukraine, Tracey German
49:The Mediterranean Dialogue, Alessandro Marrone
50:The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, Eleonora Ardemagni
51:Australia, Ben Schreer
52:Russia, Roland Dannreuther
53:China, Andrew Cottey and Mark Webber
Part IX. Conclusion
54:NATO's Redoubled Relevance, Alexander Moens and Alexandra Richards