Abstract
This book sheds a new light on the geopolitical context and long-term consequences of the enlargement of NATO which is called “expansion by invitation.” This process, conceived as a zero—sum game, has not only positive results but also some controversial consequences, namely the growing militarisation of the Baltic and Black Sea areas, the raise of the military budgets, doctrinal accents on offensive operations, and the growing numbers of military exercises and incidents between NATO and Russia. Today, Europe is witnessing a new bipolarisation, a new form of the vicious circle of measures and countermeasures, so typical for the Cold War. NATO and Russia should reverse this growing tensions and advance on the way leading from the contemporary negative peace towards the positive peace.
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Notes
- 1.
This zone became the victim of a brutal Sovietisation which resulted in the abolition of the market economies in these countries, the establishment of one-party systems in them and their complete dependence on Russia in foreign and security policy matters.
- 2.
This was the case with Hungary in 1956, and Czechoslovakia in 1968. In the first case, the intervention was followed by political trials and even by a lot of executions. It both cases, the Soviet intervention provoked massive waves of emigration of the countries’ élites.
- 3.
This pact existed from 14 May 1955 until 1 July 1991.
- 4.
The inspiration for this idea has been taken from: Empire by Invitation? The United States and Western Europe, 1945–1952 Author(s): Geir Lundestad. Journal of Peace Research, 23(3) (September 1986), 263–277, published by: Sage.
- 5.
Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic (which joined NATO in 1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (2004), Croatia and Albania (2009), Montenegro (2017) and North Macedonia (2020).
- 6.
These highly disturbing temptation will be analysed in detail in Chapter 4.
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Eichler, J. (2021). Introduction: A New Bipolarisation in Europe. In: NATO’s Expansion After the Cold War. Global Power Shift. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66641-5_1
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