We’ve devoted this issue’s Commentary section to articles related to NATO’s 75th anniversary. During its first 40 years of existence, NATO succeeded in the first two parts of the mission that its first secretary general described as “to keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” By then, it also wanted to keep the Germans in. The end of the Cold War led some to question whether the alliance, having fulfilled its mission, should be replaced by a new form of European security architecture. In the event, it instead expanded eastward to the borders of the old Russian Empire, in the process incorporating most members of the defunct Warsaw Pact. While most observers applauded the expansion as necessary and beneficial, its critics argued that it created the very Russian pushback that it was intended to hedge against. Four of our Commentary articles take differing, but favorable perspectives on the continuing existence and eastward expansion of NATO, although with some questioning about how much further such expansion should go. The fifth, along with the study highlighted in the Links section, question the expansion and its effects on US security interests.
As a practical matter, much of daily diplomatic activity involves finding ways to further national interests as defined by a country’s leaders. In the Eyewitness section, Renee Earle recounts her public diplomacy efforts in Turkey, Prague, and Paris aimed at expanding and/or strengthening NATO in the countries in which she served. On a different note, any diplomat who has done consular work can recount curious and memorable events and individuals. Jonathan Rickert presents a couple of examples in his article. Likewise, visits by chiefs of state can be the joy or the bane (usually both) of the embassy in the country visited. Sherwood Demitz gives some flavor of this in his account of President Nixon’s visit to Moscow.
In our occasional Student Corner series, high school senior Emma Crasnitchi analyzes the war in Ukraine and US interests.
The Moments in Diplomacy section offers links to oral histories collected by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. This issue recounts diplomatic activity associated with three consequential events: the transition in South Africa from apartheid to majority rule and the election of Nelson Mandela; the events leading up and subsequent to Pakistan’s initial nuclear tests; and failed military interventions in Haiti and the reasons therefor.
We’ve drawn from our Archives three prior articles concerning NATO expansion.