Although the NATO and the Russians leaders did not always see eye to eye, on the ground, their forces achieved a remarkable level of cooperation which continues to this day. The France rejoined the alliance in the year 1995 which also had a strong effect on the future of NATO.
But even a bigger mission awaited NATO in the years to come. The ethnically and ideologically diverse Balkan, was far from being in order. The next conflict took place in the Yugoslav region of Kosovo. The Serbs led by their fanatical leader Slobodan Milosevic, often compared to Saddam Hussein, started a genocide in this region in order to “clean it” from ethnic Albanians. After the conflict grew into big proportions, NATO encouraged by its success in its last Balkan mission decided to do something to stop Milosevic. US President W. Clinton showed initiative for negotiations and shortly, the US and NATO were bombing strategical and military targets around Yugoslavia. He said that “Both world wars began in Europe and both began in the same way as the conflict in Balkan so its important to stop the conflict in its roots, before it grows into a third world war”. The attacks took more time than the officials thought. The peace was finally established and Slobodan Milosevic was sent to international war crimes court in Hag. Some critics say that “NATO won an empty victory” (Bruce Clark pg. 1). He suggested that NATO should have intervened earlier, when Serbia decided for a military solution to the Kosovo conflict. But the NATO officials and the member countries were satisfied with the result of their mission. Also after the end of the Cold war, the countries of former Warsaw pact showed interest in joining the alliance. Countries such as Poland and Czech Republic were the fastest economically growing countries in the world. Some of the member countries were opposed to integration of new members into the alliance. Their arguments were that the pact would become more diverse and unstable. The discussions whether NATO should grow further took long and both sides showed strong arguments. But in the end, NATO agreed on accepting new member countries into its structures. Even Russia showed interest in joining. But the world has changed after the terrorist attack on the World Trade center in September 2001. The problem was that there was no specific country to blame. The aggressor was an independent terrorist group. The United States didn’t require all member countries to fight in Afghanistan. They only made selective use of their forces. This was another sign that the NATO is losing its need in the modern world.