The North Atlantic Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949, by 12 European and North American countries to provide collective defense against the emerging threat that the Soviet Union posed to the democracies of Western Europe. Since its inception, the alliance’s key objective has been to achieve a lasting peace in the North Atlantic area that is based on the common values of democracy, the rule of law, and individual liberty. Article 10 of the treaty permits accession of additional European states if they are in a position to further the treaty’s principles and contribute to North Atlantic security. While members must unanimously agree to any new country’s accession, the treaty contains no explicit criteria that a country must meet to join the alliance. NATO’s invitations to countries to join the alliance are political decisions based on the unanimous agreement of members. Since its inception, NATO has enlarged its membership four times as changing political and strategic circumstances have warranted. The first three occasions were linked to confrontation with the Communist bloc, particularly the Soviet Union, and were taken to meet pressing strategic and security needs. Turkey and Greece joined NATO in 1952 for strategic reasons, permitting NATO to shore up its southern flank to forestall Communist military action in Europe at the height of the Korean War. West Germany joined the alliance in 1955 after agreeing to maintain extensive NATO forces on its territory and to place its national army within NATO’s integrated command structure. With Spain’s membership in 1982, NATO gained better access to Spain’s air and naval bases, while the newly democratized nation improved its chances of joining the European Economic Community. A significantly different strategic environment marked the fourth, and latest, enlargement, when NATO’s goal was to extend stability eastward into the political vacuum resulting from the Soviet Union’s collapse. In 1994, NATO committed to enlarging its membership to include the newly democratic states of the former Communist bloc. As a result, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined the alliance in 1999, and several more east and central European countries are seeking membership. At the 1999 summit meeting in Washington, D.C., NATO promulgated, among other things, the Membership Action Plan, to provide guidance and counseling to other NATO aspirants to facilitate their preparations for possible membership. The plan sets forth defense, budgetary, information security, legal, political, and economic goals for countries to work toward to enhance their readiness for membership. Essentially, NATO wants countries that are seeking to join the alliance to (1) be democracies that are based on the rule of law; (2) have harmonious relations with neighboring countries and settle international disputes peacefully; (3) provide and protect civil liberties, human rights, and minority rights; and (4) have an open market economy. In addition, NATO wants countries to modernize and restructure their defense capabilities to be interoperable with NATO and, hence, to be able to contribute to NATO operations. To reach that goal, NATO would like countries to spend at least the equivalent of 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense development. Countries also need to implement NATO requirements for handling and securing NATO classified information and to be free from legal barriers that would prevent a country from deploying forces abroad or hosting foreign troops on their territory. Each country participating in the Membership Action Plan develops an annual plan of actions that it will pursue to achieve those goals. NATO reviews the plans and progress implementing them and provides annual feedback to each country. Representatives of NATO’s newest members, as well as representatives of the countries currently seeking NATO membership, generally agree that the program has provided crucial guidance and is a major success in assisting countries’ preparations. As of September 2002, there were nine countries participating in the Membership Action Plan—Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia—and at least one additional country, Croatia, was poised to begin participation in the fall of 2002. The nine countries have undergone three annual planning cycles and will submit their fourth annual plan to NATO in the fall of 2002. At its summit meeting in November 2002 in Prague, NATO will decide which of these countries should be invited to join the alliance in the next round of enlargement. Figure 1 shows the nine countries participating in the Membership Action Plan and current European NATO members. The President’s report responded to all of the Senate’s information requirements for each of the nine countries seeking NATO membership, providing information that was generally accurate and current. Discussion of countries’ eligibility addressed their achievements toward the goals in NATO’s Membership Action Plan; those goals include defense, budgetary, information security, legal, economic, and political goals. Discussion of most of these goals was generally detailed, but discussion of the implementation of democratic principles and reforms was limited. The President’s report responded to the five requirements in the Senate’s mandate and provided responses with regard to each of the nine countries. The five requirements were to assess (1) how countries would further the principles of the North Atlantic Treaty and contribute to North Atlantic security, (2) how countries would affect U.S. national security interests, (3) countries’ eligibility for membership, (4) the impact on NATO’s costs and members’ shares of those costs, and (5) the impact on U.S. defense and other budgets. No major events appear to have been excluded. The information provided in the report was generally accurate and current and generally consistent with the data we collected independently from a broad array of U.S. government, NATO, and foreign government sources as well as research and other nongovernment organizations. The report’s cutoff date for the timeliness of the information was July 15, 2002, and the time frames for events, particularly recent ones, were usually identified. No recent events have occurred to alter the general information provided in the report. First, to assess how countries would further the principles of the North Atlantic Treaty and contribute to North Atlantic security, the President’s report discussed countries’ achievements in this area. For example, in discussing countries’ potential impacts on North Atlantic security, the report described countries’ contributions to regional peace—in particular, the ways in which countries address controversial issues with neighboring countries and their contributions to NATO operations. Second, to address the implications of countries’ membership for U.S. security, the President’s report provided a detailed discussion of the contributions that countries have made and continue to make to NATO operations in Europe’s Balkan region—such as operations in Bosnia and Kosovo—and their cooperation and assistance in the war on terrorism. To meet the two cost requirements, the report provided estimates of the potential impact of countries’ membership on both NATO costs and U.S. budgets. Finally, the bulk of the report addressed country eligibility by discussing their accomplishments in achieving the goals of NATO’s Membership Action Plan. As discussed in the next section, the report provided information about each country’s eligibility in relation to several of those issues, but there was limited discussion of the implementation of democratic principles and reforms. The President’s report presented a detailed discussion of the defense, budgetary, information security, legal, and economic issues surrounding each country’s eligibility for membership. The information was accurate and current. Discussion of defense issues, in particular, was extensive, describing for each of the nine countries its achievements in terms of five capability areas: (1) deployability and mobility; (2) sustainability and logistics; (3) consultations, command, and control; (4) effective engagement; and (5) survivability of forces and infrastructure. The report’s discussion of budgetary issues focused on each of the nine countries’ commitments to defense spending as a percentage of its gross domestic product, and the defense budget planning systems that each country has implemented. Discussion of information security and legal issues focused on the extent to which each country had met or achieved NATO requirements. For information security, the report assessed the extent to which each of the nine countries had implemented NATO requirements for personnel screening and the handling and storage of classified documents. Regarding legal issues, the report assessed whether a country’s constitution and/or laws provided any barriers to the deployment of the country’s troops abroad, or the hosting of foreign troops in-country, in support of NATO operations. In the economic area, the report discussed the status of each country’s economy. Although the information provided in the report regarding the implementation of democratic principles and reforms was accurate and current, the discussion was limited. The report did not fully delineate the challenges facing the nine countries seeking membership or what they have been doing to address those challenges. The political goals addressed in NATO’s Membership Action Plan cover a broad spectrum, ranging from the implementation of democratic institutions, free and fair elections, the rule of law, judicial independence, and civil liberties to peaceful relations with bordering countries, peaceful settlement of international disputes, and protection of human rights and minority rights. However, the report’s discussion of the challenges facing the nine countries in such areas as civil liberties, judicial independence, human rights, and minority rights—as well as government efforts to address those challenges—was either limited or absent. The nine countries seeking membership in NATO have been transitioning over the past decade from state-controlled communist systems to democracies and market-based economies. The political goals of the Membership Action Plan represent some of the key values of the alliance. Further, these countries have been pursuing the goals set forth in NATO’s Membership Action Plan by enacting new legislation, amending existing laws, and developing new programs to address many of these goals, especially within the past 2 years. Because of these considerations, we have provided additional information on countries’ implementation of democratic principles and reforms in appendix II to help Congress in its deliberations on NATO enlargement.