NATO in Afghanistan
Subtitle: the liberal disconnect
By: Sten Rynning
Publisher: Stanford University Press; Stanford Security Studies, an imprint of Stanford University Press; Stanford Security Studies
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Stanford, California
Language: eng
Number of pages: 274
ISBN-13: 9780804782371; 9780804782388
Subjects: North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Afghan War, 2001-
Description: "The war in Afghanistan has run for more than a decade, and NATO has become increasingly central to it. In this book, Sten Rynning examines NATO's role in the campaign and the difficult diplomacy involved in fighting a war by alliance. He explores the history of the war and its changing momentum, and explains how NATO at first faltered but then improved its operations to become a critical enabler for the U.S. surge of 2009. However, he also uncovers a serious and enduring problem for NATO in the shape of a disconnect between high liberal hopes for the new Afghanistan and a lack of realism about the military campaign prosecuted to bring it about. He concludes that, while NATO has made it to the point in Afghanistan where the war no longer has the potential to break it, the alliance is, at the same time, losing its own struggle to define itself as a vigorous and relevant entity on the world stage. To move forward, he argues, NATO allies must recover their common purpose as a Western alliance, and he outlines options for change."--Publisher's website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The nature of the Atlantic beast; title: A benevolent alliance; title: NATO and Afghanistan; title: Original sins : a benevolent alliance goes to war, 2001-2005; title: Crisis and comeback : confronting the insurgency, 2006-2008; title: The reckoning : searching for a strategic purpose, 2008-2011.