NATO Enlargement: An Overview

“NATO Enlargement” is the subject of this panel, and the very words indicate how gingerly the alliance has approached the issue. The original term, “NATO Expansion,” was abandoned because of sensitivity over the aggressive implications of “expansion.” Enlargement has a more neutral sound. Why these semantic concerns? It is as if the idea of expanding NATO was a new as well as a potentially worrisome phenomenon in NATO’s history. Too many observers have assumed that the concept had emerged as abruptly as Athena springing from Jupiter’s brow. The reality is that a growing NATO is as old as the alliance itself. NATO was and is a work in progress.