Integration and Disintegration in NATO: Processes of Alliance Cohesion and Prospects for Atlantic Community

By Francis A. Beer

A foundational analysis that remains essential as NATO faces new existential threats.

Francis A. Beer's classic study of NATO, first published in 1969 at the critical time of French withdrawal, focuses on processes of Atlantic alliance cohesion and implications for cross-Atlantic relationships. At the present time, as NATO faces existential threats in the form of fresh attacks and skepticism, Beer's foundational analysis remains essential. He surveys five key areas of alliance activity: political consultation, military forces, armaments, infrastructure, and science. Across each, he identifies a recurring pattern: nationalism, self-interest, and state-level dominance repeatedly constrain and often work against collective action, even in areas where technical logic might otherwise unify coalition members.

Significant support for cooperation, Beer argues, can emerge during periods of international crisis, when member states are pressed to set aside individual concerns for common security. International crises are challenging but need not be destructive. To the contrary, crises provide opportunities for creative institutional leadership. As the book shows, a well-articulated ideology, connected to variable coalitions in different issue areas, can bring members together to maintain and build collective political-military institutions.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081426008X
• ISBN13: 9780814260081
• Release Date: January 2027
• Publisher: Ohio State University Press
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.