The Atlantic Alliance Under Stress

Book excerpt: Can the political institutions of the transatlantic alliance endure the demise of the Soviet enemy? Did the Iraq crisis of 2002–3 signal the final demise of the Atlantic partnership? If so, what are the likely consequences? In this book a distinguished group of political scientists and historians from Europe and the United States tackle these questions. The book examines the causes and consequences of the crisis in Atlantic relations that accompanied the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The authors' collective focus is not on the war itself, or how it was conducted, or even the situation in Iraq either before or after the conflict. Instead, the crisis over Iraq is the starting point for an examination of transatlantic relations and specifically the Atlantic alliance, an examination that is cross-national in scope and multi-disciplinary in approach.