North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1948-1957
Subtitle: Community or Alliance?
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: June 2006
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780773530430
Subjects: International relations; History: World; History; History - General History; Canada; Modern - 20th Century/Nuclear Age; Political Freedom & Security - International Secur; Canada - General
Description: During NATO's formative years, its leadership tried to develop an economic, social, and political role for the organization in an effort to transform it into a community of nations. Using material from Canadian, American, French, and British archives, John Milloy analyses these unsuccessful attempts to develop NATO's non-military potential. Milloy challenges the view that creating greater alliance unity has usually been only a Canadian preoccupation - other members, notably the United States and Britain, displayed a sincere interest as well - and further suggests that Canadian actions sometimes acted as an impediment. He argues that the idea failed partly because the lack of an agreed-upon definition for NATO's non-military potential hampered focused discussion. With NATO facing a post-9/11 relevancy crisis, Milloy shows that there are parallels to the inter-alliance struggles of the 1950s and that many of the early frustrations and obstacles are still present.--