The Oxford Handbook of NATO

Abstract The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has since its foundation in 1949 been the principal body of the Western security order and remains as important in the 2020s as it was in the 1950s. This Handbook offers the most extensive treatment of the Alliance published in the last two decades, providing detailed coverage of NATO allies, policies, and organizational structures. It brings together internationally renowned scholars who interrogate NATO’s actions from historical, theoretical, and empirical perspectives. The Handbook is divided into nine parts. Following an introductory part offering a thematic overview of NATO, framed by different approaches to domestic politics and global order, the second part explores three broad questions: what is NATO for? who is NATO for? whither NATO? Part III is more expressly theoretical, providing multi-perspectival analyses of the Alliance, while Part IV turns to how it works as a political–military alliance. Chapters in both Parts V and VI are concerned with what NATO does in practical terms—how it addresses a wide range of security threats and the operations in which it is involved. Part VII looks at some of the most significant allies in NATO including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Part VIII, meanwhile, is concerned with partnerships and NATO’s key relationships beyond its membership—Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, China, the European Union, and European neutral states. The final part of the volume offers reflections on NATO’s recent past and possible lines of future development.