NATO the most successful alliance in history is beset by unresolved tensions and divergent
interests that are undermining its cohesion credibility and capability. In this new book Mark
Webber James Sperling and Martin Smith explore four key post-Cold War developments that
threaten NATO's survival: an overextended geostrategic reach and an unwieldly security policy
portfolio a failure to address capability short-falls and meet defence spending benchmarks US
weariness and European wariness that call NATO into question and intra-alliance discord over
Russia's place in the European security order and how to deal with Moscow's destabilization of
Georgia and Ukraine. The authors propose in response a range of policy options that could
reinvigorate NATO but conclude with a note of caution. Alliances come and go and most are cast
into the dustbin of history. If NATO is to avoid this fate it must not only address the major
problems that trouble it but also get to grips with future challenges to alliance cohesion and
credibility from Brexit to the emerging contest with China.
