The evolution of American attitudes toward the Atlantic alliance: Continuity and change from the Washington treaty to NATO enlargement

This article contrasts the views of NATO expressed by American leaders in the 1998 debate over alliance expansion, with those expressed in the initial debate over the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1948 and 1949. A focused comparison of these cases is conducted primarily to illustrate the ways in which American attitudes toward the alliance have evolved since the years immediately following World War II, though more general conclusions about the ways in which US foreign policy adapts to meet the demands of new international conditions emerge as well. This study concludes that the American understanding of the transatlantic security relationship has changed significantly over time, and that traditional realist descriptions of the role of alliances in statecraft are no longer adequate to explain the US view of NATO.