Word: nato
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...instead of taking its final bow, NATO expanded. In 1994, the alliance sent out invitations to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland; five years later, all three were in. Sixty years ago, NATO started out with 12 members; today it has 26. Not bad for an outfit that, according to theory, should have breathed its last once the Soviet Union had capitulated...
...functional. Why else would so many nations try to court her? Give the nod to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldavia and Ukraine, and many of the good folks of those lands will be hopping on a plane to Brussels. Not only does nobody want to leave but France, which left NATO's integrated military command 43 years ago, has just now returned. In the past, France preferred being outside the tent. Now, President Nicolas Sarkozy has decided that it is better to be inside, rubbing shoulders with the American giant and thus looking like a colossus himself...
...evidently, there is something in NATO for France. What about the other Europeans, old and new? The world has been totally transformed since 1949, but the ancient cliché about NATO, authored by its first secretary-general, Lord Ismay, still works. NATO, Ismay said, had three functions: keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down...
Keeping the Americans in is still the most potent glue. Old NATO hands (like this author) can no longer count all those Euro-American crises and collisions that threatened to demolish the coalition about twice a year. The almost-breaking point came in 2002-03, when Paris, Berlin and Moscow joined hands against President George W. Bush and his war in Iraq. And yet the Alliance held...
...will allow them to pass through Turkey on their way out, in line with President Obama's withdrawal plans. Ankara may play an even larger role in Afghanistan, another key focus of the Obama Administration. Turkey already has about 800 troops on the ground as part of the NATO mission there, and could potentially provide more - the Obama Administration is currently struggling to convince other European NATO allies to send reinforcements. Washington could also seek Ankara's help in persuading some its neighbors to allow NATO to run supply lines for its Afghanistan mission through their territories...