Content area
Full Text
Any passerby on the streets of Warsaw, Bratislava, Vilnius, or Bucharest could probably, if asked, explain the arguments, pro and con, for his country joining NATO. In Eastern Europe, the question of NATO expansion is a matter of passionate debate: NATO membership makes headlines. It is the subject of magazine articles and a perennial topic for local politicians. Russians say the issue is so vital to them that the fate of arms reduction agreements and their very relationship with the West are tied to it.
On the other hand, if you ask an American in Washington, Seattle, or Atlanta about NATO expansion, you will probably hear the same kind of response a friend of mine gave several days ago: "Say what?"
The irony is that the United States, as the leader of NATO, will almost single-handedly decide which Eastern countries will join the alliance (and when), and thus determine many of the military and political arrangements that will shape Europe in the twenty-first century. But in the United States, the question of NATO membership is ignored; U.S. citizens are untouched and unaware of the issue.
Central and East European states want to join the Western European security club, and that means NATO. According to Dariusz Rosati, Poland's foreign minister, they are unpersuaded by the Russian suggestion that that club might be run by the more rudimentary Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)...