NATO Enlargement – an Analysis
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.
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