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CIAO DATE: 03/02
Volume 4, Number 1, March 1999
Introduction
Defending Freedom, Maintaining Peace
As we mark the 50th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, we celebrate the Alliance's success in defending freedom and maintaining peace over the past five decades. Americans have learned at great cost in this century that if we want to be secure at home, we must stand up for our interests, our ideals, and our friends around the world. Nowhere has our engagement been more vital than in Europe, where we have fought and won two world wars and the Cold War in this century. And no institution embodies this commitment more than NATO.
But this anniversary is not only about recognizing past accomplishments. It also presents an opportunity to chart the course of our partnership for the future and to set forth a vision of NATO for the coming decades: a larger, more flexible Alliance capable of meeting a broad range of challenges to our common interests.
NATO's purpose remains unchanged. Its mission is to defend the security, prosperity, and democratic values of its members. But the environment in which the Alliance must carry out this mission has changed. Over the last five years we have been building a new NATO that is better equipped to deal with different challenges — with new missions, new members, and new partners across Europe, including Russia and Ukraine. Yesterday's NATO guarded our borders against military aggression. Tomorrow's Alliance must continue to safeguard our shared security while contending with new threats that recognize no borders — the spread of weapons of mass destruction, ethnic violence, and regional conflict.
In April 1999, the leaders of the European nations and Canada will gather with us in Washington to welcome three new democracies — Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic — as they join us in our mission to guide the Alliance into the 21st century. NATO's doors will remain open to all those willing and able to shoulder the responsibilities of membership, and we will continue to work to strengthen our partnerships with nonmembers.
As we look ahead to the future, our goal is to build an even stronger transatlantic partnership with a Europe that is undivided, democratic, and at peace. I am convinced that succeeding generations of Europeans and Americans will enjoy peace and security because of NATO's ongoing efforts to fulfill the mission outlined 50 years ago: defending freedom, preserving peace and stability, and fostering a climate in which prosperity can flourish.