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RRecent and proposed NATO expansions include 10 former Soviet-bloc countries. Besides the irony of former communist enemies joining America's key defensive alliance, the expansions present serious challenges for the alliance.
For one thing, the new members don't bring much military muscle to the table. Of the former communist states invited to join NATO since the end of the Cold War in 1991, only Poland and Romania maintain standing armies of more than 100,000 troops. And the new members' combined defense spending added just $7.4 billion to the $461 billion spent by NATO countries in 2000.
Meanwhile, the sheer increase in NATO's ranks adds more bureaucratic weight to an organization that by all accounts is already bogged down by numerous committees and missions. In addition, the organization's consensus decision-making can be a time-consuming process — all the more so with 10 new members.
“NATO is not a four-letter synonym for efficiency,” says Anthony H. Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and former NATO staff member. “It can't be; it's an alliance of too many countries.”
Expansion has also raised concern about NATO's commitment to two of its core principles: adherence to democratic institutions and respect for human rights. Some critics say that in the rush to incorporate its former adversaries, NATO has ignored some of the new members' records on corruption and human rights.
“NATO needs to have an expulsion mechanism for members who just don't qualify anymore,” says Celeste A. Wallander, an expert on NATO, Russia and Eastern Europe at CSIS. She cites nagging instances of political corruption or the continued influence of Soviet-era security forces that supposedly were dismantled long ago in several new NATO states, including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.
“They say what needs to be said to get in, and then they don't live up to it,” she says.
Not all new members are tarred with the same brush, however. “Lithuania has made great progress toward dealing with its past in the Holocaust, and Poland has been an incredibly constructive new member of NATO,” Wallander adds. “So it's not all negative, but there are some problems.”
The 10 former Soviet states that have turned to NATO for their security since the end of the Cold War include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, which joined in 1999. Then, at NATO's November meeting in Prague, seven other Eastern European countries — Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, the former Soviet Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia — were invited to join in May 2004. If all goes according to plan, NATO's membership would jump to 26 countries — up from 16 during the Cold War.
Expansion proponents say the seven prospective new members could strengthen the alliance in several ways. Adding the Baltic republics extends NATO to Russia's western border, a step adamantly opposed by Moscow until it reached comprehensive cooperation agreements with NATO and the United States. Slovakia's entry brings the rest of the former Czechoslovakia — split in two when Slovakia and the Czech Republic parted peacefully 1993 — into the alliance. Moreover, Romania and Bulgaria will constitute NATO's easternmost boundary, providing strategically important access to the Black Sea. Meanwhile, Slovenia, the first of the former Yugoslav republics to join, will extend NATO's reach southward into the Balkans.
“Prague was truly a transformational summit — for NATO's members, for the invitees and for the wider Euro-Atlantic community,” said NATO Secretary General George Robertson. “NATO has moved decisively to make real a longstanding goal: to create a Europe truly whole and free, united in peace, democracy and common values, from the Baltics to the Black Sea.”
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