With the war in Ukraine, the role of NATO in Europe and its enlargement towards the east is relevant more than ever. This study looked at the enlargement of NATO since the end of the Cold War. The...Show moreWith the war in Ukraine, the role of NATO in Europe and its enlargement towards the east is relevant more than ever. This study looked at the enlargement of NATO since the end of the Cold War. The main reason for NATO’s existence, to deter Soviet aggression, no longer exist. So why did NATO continue to exist in the 21st century and why did it expand to the east? The purpose of this study is to look at a specific part of this enlargement, the bureaucracy of the alliance. The following research question has been used: To what extent did the bureaucracy of NATO influence the organisation’s Eastern enlargement since the collapse of the Soviet Union? To answer this question, research has been done on the different enlargement steps since the fall of the Berlin Wall up to the present. The role of the bureaucracy, including the secretary general of NATO, in relation to the member states was examined step by step. The analysis shows that the bureaucracy of NATO itself had almost no say in its enlargement. The fall of the Berlin wall symbolizes the beginning of the change NATO had undergone. However, it was the United States that played the most influential role on the alliance’s enlargement towards east with initiating NATO’s most important documents for allowing new member states.Show less
China has emerged as a new rising power with the largest Navy force and the second-biggest economy in the world. A regional collective defense security organization, NATO, has expanded its global...Show moreChina has emerged as a new rising power with the largest Navy force and the second-biggest economy in the world. A regional collective defense security organization, NATO, has expanded its global partnership to the Asia-Pacific region. This thesis seeks to research the impact of the military rise of China on NATO-led security cooperation among NATO and far yet like-minded countries. Comparative qualitative content analysis is conducted to elaborate on how the security implications of the rise of China engendered NATO to form global initiatives, analyzing two cases, the Republic of Korea, and New Zealand. Theoretical expectations are based on Regional Security Complex Theory, which is anchored on constructivism: if NATO successfully securitizes China's rise, the ROK and NZ will create bilateral or multilateral security cooperation with NATO. This paper finds out that NATO successfully framed China as an identity and a military threat, and expanded security cooperation with the ROK and NZ based on common liberal norms and values.Show less
Security Force Assistance (SFA) operations have increasingly become the cornerstone of NATO’s foreign interventionism. Logically, the great powers of the Alliance would be expected to be the...Show moreSecurity Force Assistance (SFA) operations have increasingly become the cornerstone of NATO’s foreign interventionism. Logically, the great powers of the Alliance would be expected to be the primary contributors to NATO SFA missions. Yet, middle and smaller powers appear to be the main troop providers to these operations. This research project aims to investigate how the quest for international reputation impacts the participation of middle powers in NATO SFA operations. This objective is achieved by taking the participation of Italy in NATO’s Resolute Support Mission (RSM) in Afghanistan and NATO Mission Iraq (NMI) as a case study. This paper reaches two main findings. First, Italy participated in RSM and NMI to enhance its reputation within NATO and within the broader international community, rather than out of strictly security motives. Second, when Italian policymakers employed stronger reputation-related rhetoric, they deployed a higher number of troops to the selected operations. This study concludes that middle powers that seek to enhance their international reputation participate in NATO SFA operations through higher troop deployments.Show less
Hybrid warfare is considered to be a vague term and its usefulness as an analytical tool is doubted by academics. This thesis sets out to test the analytical usefulness of the hybrid warfare term...Show moreHybrid warfare is considered to be a vague term and its usefulness as an analytical tool is doubted by academics. This thesis sets out to test the analytical usefulness of the hybrid warfare term when incorporated by NATO. Through discourse analysis, it was found that the notion of hybrid warfare and its associated terms are employed and defined inconsistently across various NATO publications. This indicates that hybrid warfare may indeed be a weak analytical tool to use. Through a thematic analysis, it was found that there is a broad consensus on the way in which hybrid warfare is defined by academics and NATO officials, which might indicate that there is some practical use for employing the term.Show less
This thesis compares the effects of NATO’s out-of-area operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan to analyze what effect geographical distance of operations have on Alliance Cohesion through the method...Show moreThis thesis compares the effects of NATO’s out-of-area operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan to analyze what effect geographical distance of operations have on Alliance Cohesion through the method of process tracing. Mainly because of the current geopolitical shift, it is important to evaluate what NATO should look out for policy-wise moving forward. The main variable of analysis in this was the changing threat-perception of the five largest contributors to both operations. The threat-perception was determined by analyzing national security reports and other primary sources from the countries involved in the analysis, focusing on elite-level policy making. What was found in the comparison was the threat-perceptions of all analyzed states were more aligned in the operations in Kosovo, while the lack of regional/national interests for the analyzed states in Afghanistan made it hard for the states to securitize the operations, damaging Alliance Cohesion. National interests and geopolitical interests were combined in the case of Kosovo, and led to the same end-goal. Meanwhile the operations in Afghanistan led to a larger discrepancy between national interests and geopolitical interests, making Alliance commitment tougher to define, and follow through on.Show less
International organizations (IOs), like all other organisms, have a life cycle, and like any governance form, IOs need to adapt to the changes or become obsolete. NATO, a survivor of all threats...Show moreInternational organizations (IOs), like all other organisms, have a life cycle, and like any governance form, IOs need to adapt to the changes or become obsolete. NATO, a survivor of all threats that the global arena has thrown at it, faced a unique threat with Trump. This thesis explores IO survival with the case study of NATO during Trump’s presidency , focusing on what explains NATO’s survival of Trump’s threats. With the support of the broad academic literature on the IO survival and NATO’s persistence, three factors, namely member state benefits, the structure of NATO and domestic politics were studied through the process-tracing method. Evidence showed that a combination of factors placated Trump from withdrawing the US from NATO. The member states’ benefits and domestic politics factors had a significant impact, and NATO’s structure factor supported them.Show less
European defence and security cooperation has largely remained intergovernmental in nature. Other issue areas such as the common market have been integrated and are primarily governed through EU...Show moreEuropean defence and security cooperation has largely remained intergovernmental in nature. Other issue areas such as the common market have been integrated and are primarily governed through EU institutions as a result. This is puzzling since the earliest efforts of European integration occurred in the field of defence and security. These efforts ultimately proved a failure and stifled further attempts at integration in this policy field for decades to come. In academic discussion, a common approach to European security and defence policy is the analysis of outcome. The pace and nature of European defence and security policy has been analysed and critiqued on frequent occasions, pointing to the still great reliance of the EU on NATO in security matters. Considering both of these aspects, this analysis aims to deliver an analysis that focusses on the process of EU defence and security policy making itself in order to investigate the puzzle of why it has remained intergovernmental. Hypothesising that it is a policy of deliberate non-decision, „gatekeeping”, by one or more actors within EU policy-making that is responsible for the intergovernmental outcome, process tracing is conducted. The findings of this analysis do not, however, corroborate the hypothesis and an alternate explanation is developed that points to a non-decision being motivated by passive factors, namely inopportune situations of the individual actors capable of propelling an integration effort forward. This analysis is, however, also able to observe that the recent push in the implementation of PESCO came about as a result of political hurdles being overcome and, in principle, a road towards integration may open up in the future.Show less
With the adoption of the European Union Global Strategy in 2016 the EU renewed its quest for attaining strategic autonomy. However, the EU document did not specify what would constitute European...Show moreWith the adoption of the European Union Global Strategy in 2016 the EU renewed its quest for attaining strategic autonomy. However, the EU document did not specify what would constitute European strategic autonomy (ESA), so, as is the case with the EU’s external policies, the national perspectives of Member States are its obvious basis. Historically, the Netherlands has been an obstructionist when it came to European security and defence integration due to its Atlanticist position, begging the question: how is European strategic autonomy represented in Dutch politics? To understand the Dutch perspective and positioning regarding ESA, this thesis drew from the field of Critical Geopolitics, conducting an interpretive-explanatory research employing discourse analysis by analysing statements made by party representatives in the Tweede Kamer during the period of 2016-2021. Three distinct schools of thought underpinning the representations of ESA in the Dutch debate. The Sovereigntists are Eurosceptics who present ESA as an attempt to establish a European army and a threat to national sovereignty. The Europeanists actively champion ESA and envision it as an emancipatory project to make the EU able to act independently of the US because it is an increasingly unreliable ally. The Atlanticists present ESA as an opportunity to take responsibility within NATO and improve burden-sharing with the US. This thesis found that the Dutch debate regarding European security policy has substantially Europeanised. While the Atlanticists are still cautious, they no longer take an active obstructionist position, instead adopting Europeanist talking-points from the 90s. Considering this Europeanist momentum, there is potential for the Netherlands to become an active and serious promotor of ambitious European security commitments.Show less
This thesis aimed to establish how Gibridnaya Voyna became a popular framework in Russia to describe Russia’s relationship with the West. Using the process-tracing method, this thesis traced the...Show moreThis thesis aimed to establish how Gibridnaya Voyna became a popular framework in Russia to describe Russia’s relationship with the West. Using the process-tracing method, this thesis traced the two main aspects of the Gibridnaya Voyna framework, NATO expansion and color revolutions, throughout major Russian documents from 1991 to 2016.Show less
When NATO was established the world was in a different place. The world had seen the use of nuclear weapons in Japan for the first time and was confronted with the devastating consequences of these...Show moreWhen NATO was established the world was in a different place. The world had seen the use of nuclear weapons in Japan for the first time and was confronted with the devastating consequences of these weapons. NATO was established as an Alliance between the United States, Canada, and European countries. Meanwhile, the Cold War had started between the United States on one side and the Soviet Union on the other side. To ensure the safety of the European counterparts, NATO decided to establish the nuclear sharing arrangement that would provide certain countries in Europe with nuclear weapons. The Netherlands is one of these countries. This was in the Netherlands’ own security interests, which are heavily influenced by NATO’s security policies. After the end of the Cold War, there was no direct threat and therefore, no direct need to keep these nuclear weapons. However, the Netherlands has been unable to denuclearize. It will use securitization theory as a theoretical framework to try to understand the denuclearization process. This thesis will analyze the denuclearization debate in the Netherlands and what role nuclear weapons play in Dutch security policy.Show less
When looking at the relationship between the U.S. and Russia one can see that since the fall of the Soviet Union it has been a tense one. It seems as though both countries have never understood...Show moreWhen looking at the relationship between the U.S. and Russia one can see that since the fall of the Soviet Union it has been a tense one. It seems as though both countries have never understood each other, culturally, politically and economically. With the alleged 2016 meddling of Russia in U.S. elections the mistrust towards Russia has risen to an all-time high. This thesis aims to provide an analysis of the Clinton Administration which can be used as lessons for future administrations. First a small overview of the development of the relationship between the U.S. and Russia will be provided. It will then proceed to look at the role of NATO expansion within the development of the relationship between both countries, during the critical time-period after the fall of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, the personal relation between President Clinton and Russia, as well as President Yeltsin, will be examined to indicate how Clinton tackled the opportunity of starting to build a solid relationship between the U.S. and Russia. By concluding with a case study on Bosnia this thesis aims to show how different interests can lead to a conflicting relationship, leading to the fact that there are still lessons that can be learned from history.Show less
This thesis explores collective action problems in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the post-Soviet era. Collective action theory does not have plain explanations for the fact that...Show moreThis thesis explores collective action problems in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the post-Soviet era. Collective action theory does not have plain explanations for the fact that NATO is still operating. As long as member states invest in the alliance in terms of financial contributions and by participating in operations, NATO is likely to persist. By focusing on the case of the Netherlands, the study addresses a state’s incentives for contributing to NATO-led out-of-area operations. More specifically, this thesis has selected Kosovo Force, Resolute Support, and NATO Mission Iraq to analyze why the Netherlands has participated in NATO missions. Through a content analysis of letters in which the government justifies its decision for participating in these missions, the study can collect, categorize, and interpret the arguments of the Dutch government. Following the theories of institutionalism and constructivism, this research argues that the Netherlands has contributed to NATO-led out-of-area operations because it strived to sustain the institutional assets of NATO and to promote liberal-democratic values.Show less
This thesis will seek to explore the Obama administration’s reasoning behind its foreign policy of ‘leading from behind’ in the NATO alliance. While the United States proved willing to account for...Show moreThis thesis will seek to explore the Obama administration’s reasoning behind its foreign policy of ‘leading from behind’ in the NATO alliance. While the United States proved willing to account for an excessive share of the burden during, for example, the intervention in the former Yugoslavia of 1999, Washington DC called for a wider shared responsibility during the 2011 intervention in Libya. It will be argued that the core arguments of the hegemonic stability theory, which are generally neglected in debates about military burden-sharing, render useful in explaining this shift in American contributions made to the NATO alliance. By analysing and comparing the two major NATO air campaigns in the former Yugoslavia and Libya, it will be revealed that the shift from a unipolar to a multi-polar world has resulted in this new direction in US foreign policy. This thesis will demonstrate that the unipolar world in which the intervention in the former Yugoslavia took place allowed the US to retain – and even strengthen – its hegemonic position in the global order. However, the Obama administration took the relative decline of US power into account in its decision to lead from behind in Libya. As predicted by the hegemonic stability theory, hegemons that lose power become less willing to accept free-riding in alliances and reconsider the way in which they spend their resources. The intervention in Libya should, therefore, be considered as a tipping point that reflected this new direction in US foreign policy.Show less
