Not Whether But When: The U.S. Decision to Enlarge NATO

By James M. Goldgeier

Book Overview

How did Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic become the newest members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? Based on interviews conducted with more than 75 individuals--from Cabinet officials to desk officers--James M. Goldgeier tells the inside story of this controversial Clinton administration initiative. Analyzing the earliest internal deliberations, as well as administration discussions with allies, the Russians, and the United States Senate, Goldgeier demonstrates how a handful of committed policymakers outmaneuvered overwhelming bureaucratic opposition. He shows the role of domestic politics in shaping the evolution of this policy and dissects the national campaign waged by the administration's specially created NATO enlargement ratification office and its outside supporters. Weaving together insights about bureaucratic politics, policy entrepreneurship, and domestic politics, this book provides fresh insights into the American foreign policymaking process.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081573171X
• ISBN13: 9780815731719
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The definitive history of the US decision to enlarge NATO

Professor Goldgeier has completed an exhaustively researched documentary of how US policy evolved from the indifference of the Bush Administration to the eventual activism of the Clinton Administration in bringing in former Warsaw Pact satellite nations of the USSR into the bedrock of Western security, NATO. It is a fascinating and eminently readable account of both Washington policmaking and Alliance politics. Together with former Congressman Gerald B. Solomon's The NATO Enlargement Debate 1990-1997 (Praeger 1998), Professor Goldgeier's volume will certainly satisfy the key curriculum reading list for scholars of European security. A must read. John Borawski Director of the Political Committee NATO Parliamentary Assembly 1987-1999