Publication

This report describes how NATO has gradually redirected its strategy from Eastern and Central Europe to the Middle East. The author explains that international terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the political instability of weak states have created a revised security environment and started a second transformation of NATO. The report details how the revised focus on the Middle East has also moved the alliance to turn its existing outreach program with seven states in the Mediterranean and the Middle East into a real partnership resembling the Partnership for Peace (PfP). However, the author argues that it will be a difficult task to implement the Mediterranean Dialogue in the same fashion as the PfP model, as a number of deep-seated obstacles and barriers exist between NATO and its Mediterranean and Middle Eastern partners.