The Foreign Service Journal, April 2009

F O C U S O N NATO AT 6 0 A NSWERING THE H ARD Q UESTIONS Jean Francois Podevin 22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 9 risis in Trans-Atlantic Relations” has always been good for a headline and a conference title, and “Whither NATO?” has been a popular question for the Alliance since its founding. Indeed, crisis and doubt have been the recurring features over NATO’s 60 years of existence. In the 1950s, the military struc- ture of the Alliance developed through the years of the Korean War, the divisive Suez crisis and Sputnik; in the same decade, then-West Germany joined the Alliance. The 1960s saw continued tension over Berlin, changes in U.S. nu- NATO MUST RECOGNIZE THAT ITS CURRENT INTERNAL DIFFERENCES ARE REAL , AND THAT SURMOUNTING THEM WILL REQUIRE A SUSTAINED EFFORT . B Y J OSEPH R. W OOD “ C