NATO's Eastern Agenda in a New Strategic Era.(Book Review)

NATO's Eastern Agenda in a New Strategic Era by F. Stephen Larrabee. RAND (http://www.rand. org/), 1700 Main Street, Santa Monica, California 90407-2138, 2003, 192 pages, $30.00. http:// www. rand.org/publications/MR/MR1744/.

On 2 April 2004, seven new flags were raised in front of NATO Headquarters in Brussels. This flag raising marked the formal admission to NATO of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, and Bulgaria. A few years ago, this admission ceremony would have been thought to be very unlikely. The ceremony marked another step in NATO's continuing transformation, a transformation that started with the end of the Cold War and continues in the new strategic environment of the post-9/ll world. In this short, well-informed, and clearly articulated book, Stephen Larrabee does an excellent job of explaining the …