The year 2014 brings several anniversary dates concerning NATO´s historic post-Cold War enlargement to Central and Eastern European nations. Fifteen years ago in spring 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland—having received invitations at the Madrid Summit in 1997—became the first post-Communist countries to join the alliance. A decade ago, March 2004 saw the largest NATO enlargement ever when seven nations – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia – joined NATO as a result of the “Big Bang” enlargement round announced at the November 2002 Prague summit.
The year 2014 brings several anniversary dates concerning NATO´s historic post-Cold War enlargement to Central and Eastern European nations. Fifteen years ago in spring 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland—having received invitations at the Madrid Summit in 1997—became the first post-Communist countries to join the alliance. A decade ago, March 2004 saw the largest NATO enlargement ever when seven nations – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia – joined NATO as a result of the “Big Bang” enlargement round announced at the November 2002 Prague summit.
These rounds of NATO enlargement have redrawn Europe’s strategic map in profoundly positive ways. For centuries, the states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were often treated as strategic pawns by Europe’s Great Powers and Russia. This Great Power competition resulted in hundreds of millions of broken lives through warfare, political killings, and deportations. NATO’s enlargements in 1999 and 2004 have virtually eliminated these dangers by anchoring these countries in the most successful political-military alliance in history and creating a secure space in which democracies are flourishing.
Download: Henrik Praks – NATO Enlargement