The Foreign Service Journal, April 2009

F O C U S O N NATO AT 6 0 T HE R USSIA F ACTOR Jean Francois Podevin 28 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 oday’s NATO bears little resemblance to the Alliance that emerged at the end of the ColdWar. Then, many believed NATO was destined for the history books. The common threat posed by the Soviet bloc had vanished. Landmark arms control treaties slashed nuclear and conventional arsenals, and legislators wrangled over an elusive “peace dividend.” In 1990, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe gathered the leaders of Eu- rope and North America — of nations large and small, member-states of NATO and the Warsaw Pact as well as the non- T HE DEVELOPMENT OF A SUSTAINABLE , MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH M OSCOW REMAINS A MAJOR PIECE OF UNFINISHED BUSINESS FOR NATO. B Y P AUL F RITCH T