Paper Summary:

The paper relates that following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, many members of the former Warsaw Pact abandoned their former ties with Russia to pursue integration into both European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. To determine how these countries have fared as a result, this paper provides a discussion concerning the course and circumstances of the events as well as an assessment of the respective countries' situation and their motivation for this course of action, including the relevant historical, political, economic, and security aspects. The paper provides an analysis concerning whether integration into both organizations was beneficial for these countries and whether the situation of these Eastern and Central European countries has fundamentally improved as a result of their integration into these international organizations. The paper includes several graphs and tables.

Outline:
Introduction
Review and Discussion
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"As can be readily seen in Table 1 above, the former Warsaw Pact has become completely subsumed into the NATO alliance in a wholesale fashion, suggesting that these countries considered continuing membership in a collective security arrangement of some sort in their best interests, notwithstanding the diametrically different political ideologies involved. Nevertheless, it is remarkable in many ways that this transformation from membership in one military alliance to its former Cold War adversary took place so rapidly and so willingly, and there must be some truly compelling reasons for these countries to seek out new security arrangements with their former foes and the research confirms that indeed that there are many. Prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the aspiring states seeking accession to NATO included Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia but there were a number of constraints to their membership at the time that precluded their joining NATO including objections from Russia (especially as to the Balkan states) as well as the strict membership criteria required by NATO (Rupp 2002)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hendrickson, Ryan C. "The Miscalculation of NATO's Death," Parameters, vol. 37, no. 1 (2007), 98-99.
• Hulsman, John C. "Can NATO Survive Europe?" The National Interest, no. 75 (Spring 2004), 65-66.
• Ingebritsen, Christine. "Learning from Lilliput: Small States and EU Expansion." Scandinavian Studies, vol. 76, no. 3 (2004), 369-370.
• "NATO Member Countries." North Atlantic Treaty Organization (2009). http://www.nato.int/ cps/en/natolive/nato_countries.htm.
• Rosenberg, Matt, "Member Countries of the Warsaw Pact" (2009), http://geography.about. com/od/lists/qt/warsawpact.htm.

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