NATO's Post-Cold War Politics ― The Changing Provision of Security

This collection portrays NATO's post-Cold War bureaucracy, decision-shaping and -making at Brussels Headquarters, identifies changes therein and evaluates their implications for the pursuit of external security with accompanying shifts in the locus of governance. It does so using the analytical concept of 'internationalization' which draws upon neo-institutionalist insights: a process by which national procedures of a policy area are linked with—or shift to—international organizations and thus enhance their significance. While some chapters centre on NATO's new post-Cold War security environment or changed power structures impacting on Alliance politics, the majority of authors describe NATO's new or adapted administrative bodies, associated operational roles and political procedures, its cooperation with third-party actors, and assess associated levels of internationalization. It becomes clear that although governments evidently remain key shapers of political processes, they now face thicker institutional structures of rules and common practices which implies adaptation and changes in national policies.

Sebastian Mayer is Research Fellow at the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies, University of Bremen, Germany. He has published on security dynamics in the Southern Caucasus, on NATO and the EU's CFSP, and on institutional change and the transformation of security politics, more generally.