Security Europeanization since 1989

This chapter examines the process of NATO expansion since 1989, highlighting the strange fact that NATO claims to be a community of “European” values and identity as much as, if not more than, a strategic and military alliance. This has led NATO gatekeepers to pursue enlargement for rationales other than strict realist self-interest and has led NATO into direct conflict with Russia over the security policies of the ex-Soviet republics, especially Georgia and Ukraine. The chapter examines the unsuccessful efforts of NATO to find ways to cooperate with Russia, and of Russia to reshape the European security sphere to its own ends and according to its own values.