The Limits of Alliance: The United States, NATO, and the EU in North and Central Europe (The New International Relations of Europe) - Tapa dura

In The Limits of Alliance, Andrew Michta once again demonstrates why he is one of the leading authorities on European security. This rich, balanced, and detailed exploration of developments in North and Central Europe is a major contribution to our understanding of the range of security issues facing the European Union and NATO today. -- James M. Goldgeier, George Washington University Andrew Michta has written a very important, excellent book on the geostrategic reconfiguration of northern and central Europe in the post-9/11 world. The Limits of Alliance is important because it provides insights into the direction of future NATO-EU and transatlantic relations, and excellent in its scholarship and understanding of the dynamics of European politics. This book should be read by policy makers and students concerned with European politics. -- Jeff Simon, National Defense University For anyone who wants to know why NATO has fallen on hard times, read Andrew Michta's terrific new book. It makes clear that the future is bleak for that venerable institution, not just because trans-Atlantic relations have gone south, but also because of what is happening inside Europe. This is a sad tale well told. -- John J. Mearsheimer, University of Chicago Recommended. * CHOICE * Andrew Michta provides a well-written, detailed, scholarly-yet-insider account of the new security arrangements in North and Central Europe. These areas have been largely ignored in recent years, since the dramatic enlargement of the EU and NATO to the east, but Michta probes deeply into the geostrategic reconfiguration of Germany, Scandinavia, the Baltics, Central Europe, and Russia to ask what the new allies contribute to the Atlantic Alliance, what new alliance arrangements are being made, and what the implications of these changes are for U.S. policy. Insightful, highly readable, and well informed. Michta is one of the leading scholars in the field. -- Howard J. Wiarda, University of Georgia (late)

The Limits of Alliance surveys the security policies of the states in North and Central Europe in the context of a declining North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the emerging European Security and Defense Policy. It analyzes U.S. policy toward the region and examines the continued viability of alignments inherited from the Cold War era. It concludes that although NATO will continue to exist in the coming decade, the hollowing-out of the alliance will be accompanied by a shift in transatlantic security relations toward bilateralism determined by regional security considerations.