The key role of the United States was to stop the countries of Warsaw pact from attacking the Western Europe. The alliance provided the member countries with protection, political and economical growth. For the United States, the membership was also profitable. Thanks to NATO, Americans were able to set military bases in Europeans countries, which later on were used to settle down military conflicts around Europe, mainly on the Balkan. But not even NATO was prepared for the events that came in the late 1980s. From the free elections in Poland, opening borders in Hungary, massive demonstrations in former Czechoslovakia to the dismantling of the Berlin wall in 1989. And with the fall of the Berlin wall, the cold war was over and the communists were no longer a threat. NATO present


I would like to date the present era of NATO from the fall of Communism. The impact of these radical political changes in the Eastern world on NATO was immense. A whole new political and strategical structure had to be formed. In July 1990, Alliance leaders called for new avenues of co operations with countries of the East, even they were forced to articulate realistic new goals for NATO and to develop new ways to manage its work. The fall of Communism allowed the allies to envisage a new European order. But it also opened the way for new regional and ethnic conflicts in former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia. It also elicited provocative questions whether NATO should even continue to exist. In 1991, in Rome, NATO adopted a new strategic concept providing for new missions for the alliance in conflict resolution and regional security. Necessary for this plan was the integration of former Warsaw pact countries into the alliance. NATO became the main stabilization force on the “old continent”. NATO’s transformation met an immediate challenge in the devastating conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1991, the countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia were in military tension because of cultural and religion differences. This tensions led to several armed conflicts and then to an open war. In order to maintain peace in the region and to prevent casualties among the innocents, NATO started negotiating with UN. After the negotiations, NATO created its own peace Implementation force (IFOR) in 1995 followed by a Stabilization force (SFOR) to enforce the peace and help for the civilian reconstruction activities. IFOR/SFOR mission proved the ground for cooperation with non-NATO countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and even Russia.