Original scientific paper
NATO AND THE US FOREIGN POLICY: ON THE OCCASION OF NATO’S FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY, THE KOSOVO CRISIS, AND THE NEW STRATEGIC CONCEPT
Ante Barišić
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author analyses the process of democratisation of international relations and the future configuration of international order following the end of the era of bipolar confrontation and the establishment of cooperation in the world which has witnessed the change in the key actors’ roles regarding their approach to the resolution of the post-cold-war crises which jeopardise the world’s peace and stability. First, the author provides a short outline of the genesis of the evolution of the US foreign policy, from the end of World War II to the beginning of the cold war and the formation of NATO. He points out that today’s agenda of the international order, its structures, interventionism, and use of force in achieving political objectives, were already shaped at that time. The suggestions put forward constituted the framework and the foundation for the world politics until the late 80s; the cumulative effect of these responses on today’s attempts at solving postcold- war crises enables us to evaluate the roles and behaviour of individual actors in the resolution of the Kosovo crisis. The maintenance of peace and stability in the post-cold-war world in the circumstances of cooperation and partnership requires an appropriate approach and manner of resolving the crises triggered off by the collapse of communist federations. Imperial policies and regimes must be eliminated while the process of the geopolitical consolidation and the creation of independent and sovereign states in Central and Eastern Europe (and in Euro-Asia on the whole), built around the democratic and market principles, must be wrapped up. The new political leaders (mostly leftist) in the countries that for over fifty years (and now through the Kosovo crisis) have been developing the trans-Atlantic alliance within the military- political framework of NATO (based on the same values, principles, and goals), are now developing appropriate strategies for the post-cold-war hotspots (based on the accumulated experiences).
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
32018
URI
Publication date:
3.6.1999.
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