From Madrid to Brussels: Perspectives on NATO Enlargement
Dr Stephen J Blank
Monograph by the US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute
"When we think about European security, no question is more basic or more complex than that of NATO enlargement. In July 1997, members of NATO will convene in Madrid and decide to invite a number of Central and/or East European states to begin accession talks with NATO, leading to their full membership in 1999. While it is not certain who the invited states will be, there are good grounds for listing Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic as reasonable certainties. Slovenia and Romania are also increasingly mentioned as possibilities. NATO's decision in Madrid will have immense repercussions for Europe, not just for NATO's current members, or for the new candidates, but also for the states not invited. Those presumably include Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Albania, the states emerging out of the former Yugoslavia, and the European neutrals: Finland, Sweden, and Austria, and the Baltic states."