Enduring Alliance: A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order

by Timothy Andrews Sayle

Born from necessity, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has always seemed on the verge of collapse. Even now, some seventy years after its inception, some consider its foundation uncertain and its structure weak. At this moment of incipient strategic crisis, Timothy A. Sayle offers a sweeping history of the most critical alliance in the post-World War II era.

In Enduring Alliance, Sayle recounts how the western European powers, along with the United States and Canada, developed a treaty to prevent encroachments by the Soviet Union and to serve as a first defense in any future military conflict. As the growing and unruly hodgepodge of countries, councils, commands, and committees inflated NATO during the Cold War, Sayle shows that the work of executive leaders, high-level diplomats, and institutional functionaries within NATO kept the alliance alive and strong in the face of changing administrations, various crises, and the flux of geopolitical maneuverings. Resilience and flexibility have been the true hallmarks of NATO.

As Enduring Alliance deftly shows, the history of NATO is organized around the balance of power, preponderant military forces, and plans for nuclear war. But it is also the history riven by generational change, the introduction of new approaches to conceiving international affairs, and the difficulty of diplomacy for democracies. As NATO celebrates its seventieth anniversary, the alliance once again faces challenges to its very existence even as it maintains its place firmly at the center of western hemisphere and global affairs.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, The United States Of America, War, International Relations

360 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2019

Reviews

[Vadym Didyk · Rating 2 out of 5]

НАТО - слово з чотирьох літер, ставлення до якого так часто змінювалось не лише в українців, але і у самих членів Альянсу. Це я мовчу про росіян, які бояться цього слова і кидаються на саму згадку про нього, як гієни.

З моменту анексії Криму, початку війни на сході, а потім і після повномасштабного вторгнення Росії в Україну, значення, вага та роль НАТО дуже сильно зросла. Як для українців, так і для членів Альянсу. Фактично, почався історичний відрізок часу, коли НАТО починає діяти так, як і зазначалось в їхній візії - стримувати росіян. Це відбувалось так чи інакше в різних формах, від самого початку створення об'єднання після Другої світової війни, але саме зараз розпочався важливий історичний (і може вирішальний) момент, коли протистояння вийшло на рівень найвищих ставок.

Ідея написати книгу про НАТО - дуже крута. Автор зробив це дуже непогано, хоча відчувається брак вміння подати історію саме в ключі сторітелінгу, а не просто хронології та рефлексії. Саме тому її дещо важко було читати, адже відчувалось, що не вистачає якогось елементу, який би клеїв текст, додавав йому шарму, життя, рухав історію вперед. Проте в контексті інформації і розкриття теми "а що ж таке НАТО?" - книга майже ідеальна. Майже - бо дуже сильно не вистачало українського контексту. Автор згадував Україну в одиничних випадках, і це суттєвий мінус для українського читача. Я б хотів поглянути на НАТО через призму України, а тут - через призму Франції, США, Британії, і їхнього антагоніста СРСР.

Тут є відповіді на всі питання, які стосуються НАТО. Як і чому утворилась організація, як змінювалась, які кризи переживала, як реагували країн-члени Альянсу на внутрішні конфлікти, як ця машина існувала, прогресувала, занепадала, і заново відроджувалась. Якщо вам дуже цікаво почувати відповіді та розкрити для себе тему НАТО, попри форму та стиль письма - це книга для вас. Якщо вас цікавить український контекст, ви любите, щоб текст чіпляв, був живим, відчувався авторський стиль - може бути важко читати, адже книга велика і дуже насичена інформацією.

[Bent Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keeping the US in, the Soviet Union out, and Germany down
A really interesting and insightful account of NATO with a primary focus on the early years and the Cold War. There is much focus on the eternal struggle between the US and the European partners of the Alliance due to the uneven burdensharing and the increasing unwillingness in many European states - Germany in particular - during the Cold War to host American nuclear weapons.
Although Sayle includes a few pages in his concluding chapter on the post-Cold War years, I think the work could have been even more interesting if he had included more about NATO's engagement in the former Yugoslavia, a watershed in NATO's history.

[An ARC of the book was generously provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review]

[Brian Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

My thanks to the publisher, Cornell University Press, for providing me with a review copy of the eBook via Netgalley. The comments are my own.

This book is a chronological account of the life and times of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since its inception in the late 1940's up to the beginning of the 21st Century. In the author's words, "..it is not a bureaucratic history of NATO organs in Paris or Brussels, nor one meant to hive off the history of NATO from the larger Cold War era." The best explanation for NATO has been attributed to Lord Ismay, NATO's first Secretary-General, who reportedly said that it existed "..to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." Throughout its history, NATO members have needed to deal with crises arising from each of these aspects. It seems that in each decade of its existence there has been an existential event facing the alliance. Of course, over the years the cast of characters has changed; for the U.S. it has gone from General, then President Eisenhower to President Trump. The likes of Charles de Gaulle and the Soviet Union have come and gone. NATO has endured, as the author notes, and he references a 2017 Gallup poll that shows 80% of Americans think that it should be maintained.

The last third of the book consists of acknowledgements, explanatory notes to the numerous footnotes in the text and an index. (It is difficult to refer to the footnotes in the eBook format, without losing your place in the text). There is no bibliography as such, but the author has identified his primary sources that influenced his thinking about NATO's place in international relations. It is a book to study and a casual read of it may provide a reader with only a superficial understanding of the argument that NATO " ..should not be considered only as an international organization but as an instrument of great-power politics..".

In the final analysis, this is a good survey course about NATO and placing it in the larger context of international affairs over the life of NATO.

[Isaac Chan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Omfg this was the dryest book I've read in years. The last few chapters were extremely painful and I just skimmed them and scanned the conclusion. This one was way out of my league and as such I gained ntg from this book, except maybe for a few isolated facts here and there. As an economist I thought I have the stamina to get thru texts of what the avg person might think is very dry material, but hey, this book rlly disproved my hypothesis.

I got pretty interested in NATO after, probably for many others as well, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and got motivated to learn more about it after its membership is expanding so breathtakingly in the recent past. Mearsheimer's critical comments on NATO are all I know about it so far, and since my only knowledge of it is from him, I won't regurgitate his views.

As such this book was probs just the wrong fit for me because it's written by a historian, with a deeply historical lens. I'm probs more interested in a political analysis of NATO. If anyone knows of any beginner guides to NATO, I'm all ears.

[Luke VanHouten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books gives a very comprehensive overview of NATO's interraction with the Cold War and the nations it played out in. Being a Canadian, Sayle has a unique perspective on the alliance outside of the tripartisms that led it as well as the smaller nations where there were the highest levels of fear of conflict (which was not the case in Canada due to its distance from Europe). Some chapters offer specific vignettes of major, yet only passing issues that challenged the alliance's influence, while others span many years and presidencies in order to qualify the largest issues for the alliance during the conflict, such as arms control. However, Sayle does not delve much into NATO's history following the end of the Cold War (although there does exist a large amount of other literature on that subject).

[Steven Voorhees · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat dry, doctoral dissertation-y history of NATO, from its conception in the years immediately after WW II through the Trump presidency. Reading about NATO now, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is very timely; after all, Ukraine’s refusal to renounce NATO membership fueled Purim’s encroachment of that nation. Yet until the last chapters, the main ideas of the book and NATO are the organization’s obsession with Germany. It’s a fixation with deep historical and geographical roots. Germany must be on board. Germany’s the bulwark. Despite its arid prose, I recommend this book for anyone interested in the current conflict between Moscow and Kyiv. Those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

the wild Amazone

Good book that highlights the struggles of a collective security organization of nations with competing motivations and objectives. Recommended for military planners and historians of the Cold War.

Dale B. Woodhouse

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informative

A well documented overview of the twists and turns in the development of NATO. That said it can be a hard read at times due to the wealth of information. If you are patient you will benefit from the detail especially where the various secret agreements and meetings are concerned.

Mcdonaldpeacock

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[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

France

Good book that highlights the struggles of a collective security organization of nations with competing motivations and objectives. Recommended for military planners and historians of the Cold War.

[Justin Mohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid fundamental basis, drawing clear themes which demonstrate is as much ongoing Allied process as enduring organization.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential history of NATO that is immensely relevant in the present day. Sayle does an excellent job of tracing the highs and lows of the Alliance in a way that serves to underline its importance

[Rodney Ríos-Rodríguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book but a little dry to read. I wish it would’ve covered the 21st century more. All in all, recommended.

[Lucia Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

was read for class but was honestly pretty grasping. i love me a good foreign policy book