The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1948-1957: Community or Alliance?

By John C. Milloy

During NATO's formative years, its leadership tried to develop an economic, social, and political role for the organization in an effort to transform it into a community of nations. Using material from Canadian, American, French, and British archives, John Milloy analyses these unsuccessful attempts to develop NATO's non-military potential.

Milloy challenges the view that creating greater alliance unity has usually been only a Canadian preoccupation - other members, notably the United States and Britain, displayed a sincere interest as well - and further suggests that Canadian actions sometimes acted as an impediment. He argues that the idea failed partly because the lack of an agreed-upon definition for NATO's non-military potential hampered focused discussion. With NATO facing a post-9/11 relevancy crisis, Milloy shows that there are parallels to the inter-alliance struggles of the 1950s and that many of the early frustrations and obstacles are still present.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0773530436
• ISBN13: 9780773530430
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"