Atlantic Security - Contending Visions (Paperback)

Although policymakers have embarked on ambitious plans to enlarge NATO into Central and Eastern Europe, a guiding vision for fashioning an Atlantic alliance for the next century has yet to emerge. In this book, Charles Kupchan addresses that issue and examines the direction and underlying assumptions of the transatlantic security relationship. Where is the transatlantic security relationship headed? What key assumptions should inform efforts to preserve it? This book forges a guiding vision by juxtaposing three essays grounded in competing theoretical traditions. Stephen Walt's realist approach suggests that the Atlantic democracies have no choice but to accept a weaker and less cohesive alliance. Ole Weaver's constructivist perspective points to the process of European integration as the key to Atlantic security. Charles Kupchan's liberal account focuses on how to preserve the Atlantic alliance as a community of democracies among which war has become essentially unthinkable. By pitting rival analytic perspectives against each other, this book clarifies the intellectual roots of ongoing debate about Atlantic security and uncovers the different starting points that inform alternative policy choices.