Recent controversies in NATO have caused observers to question the Alliance's "raison d'etre." They generally contend that NATO's crisis has gone from bad to worse and that the Alliance is ill-adapted to the era of international terrorism, but this assessment is inaccurate. NATO leaders have, in fact, become better at shaping NATO to the strategic environment following a severe crisis in the mid-1990s. At that time, the allies were trying to turn NATO into something it could not be; at present, the allies are on target in their efforts to adapt NATO. "NATO Renewed" is the story of why NATO's problems are manageable and why the Atlantic Alliance likely will continue to have both power and purpose.

This book provides an overview of what has happened to NATO from the closing stages of the Cold War to the new era of international terrorism. However, it is more than that. It also argues that NATO has travelled a course that contradicts the prevailing image of an organization in decline and crisis. NATO must be crafted by its members to fit the security environment in which it operates. Rynning argues that the allies did this poorly in the mid-90s but have succeeded better in the past few years. NATO has persisted into this new era because it has overcome a crisis of identity in the 90s and is on track to establish a viable model for flexible transatlantic security cooperation.