Foreword

One of the greatest changes in NATO's operations since the end of the Cold War is the way in which the Alliance has sought to build effective partnerships with other international institutions and key countries in the interest of providing maximum security both to its members and the wider world. These efforts received added impetus and a sense of urgency in the wake of 9/11 and their importance to NATO was underlined at last year's Prague Summit. In recognition, this issue of NATO Review, which is entitled NATO's strategic partnerships, analyses many of the Alliance's most important relationships. In the first of four articles devoted to this theme, I examine how NATO has developed relations with other international organisations and key countries since the end of the Cold War. Julian Lindley-French of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy analyses the prospects for relations between the European Union and NATO and Pol De Witte of NATO's Political Affairs and Security Policy Division adds a short piece explaining how this key relationship has moved forward since adoption of the seminal EU-NATO Declaration on ESDP in December last year. Paul Fritch of NATO's Political Affairs and Security Policy Division examines the evolution of NATO-Russia relations and Rolf Welberts of NATO's Moscow Office adds a brief description of the trials and tribulations of representing NATO in Russia. And James Sherr of the Conflict Studies Research Centre in Camberley, England, examines NATO-Ukraine relations via the prism of defence reform.

In the debate, Fraser Cameron of the European Policy Centre in Brussels and Andrew Moravcsik of Harvard University discuss whether the European Union should be able to do everything that NATO can. In a rare interview, General Konstantin Vasilyevich Totskiy, the first Russian Ambassador exclusively accredited to NATO, discusses Moscow's hopes and fears for the future of NATO-Russia relations. Petr Lunak of NATO's Public Diplomacy Division reviews and compares the memoirs of Strobe Talbott, Boris Yeltsin and Yevgeniy Primakov. Elsewhere, Zuqian Zhang of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies examines the potential for closer relations between China and NATO. And Air Vice-Marshal Andrew Vallance from Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe explains how NATO's Command Structure has been revamped to meet the security demands of the 21st century.