| This project uses the adaptations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the 1990s to examine the validity of one of the basic premises of alliance theory. The premise studied herein states: if the security environment, which resulted in the formation of an alliance changes, then the alliance will change. Stated more starkly, the premise would affirm: if the threat or cause for alliance formation ceases to exist, then the alliance will dissolve. The discussion reviews the major alliance theory arguments from the immediate post-Cold War period as well as institutional theory allowing the text to assert a two-level institution---organization structure within NATO consisting of political and military institutions and organizations that together form the whole recognized as NATO. From this vantage, the study developed a two-tiered hypothesis stating: if the security environment changes, then the political institution and organization will change; if the political changes, then the military institution and organization will change.; To test the hypothesis, the project used four metric areas to assess where, when and how change occurred and what affect any change had upon the security environment. The four metric areas included political and military concepts, command structures, forces and capabilities, and planning and operations. The study divided the 1990s into two segments from 1990--1994 and 1995--1999. These two periods served as the case studies for the project.; The research effort produced a split result. Findings indicated validation of the hypothesis during the first half of the 1990s. However, the metric areas yielded data that invalidated the hypothesis during the latter half of the decade. The research indicated that in fact, the political and military elements of the alliance actually worked to change the security environment of the NATO alliance and its partners. Further, it was the military element that at times provided change impetus to the security environment. Thus, a key implication from this study is that current alliance theory must expand its bases to account for this reversal of effect. A key question for future theoreticians and practitioners is whether they could replicate the NATO experience in other regions and under other security conditions. |
