Yet after the Cold War, NATO struggled to find a roleArguments about NATO’s obsolescence are not new; they began as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed. But NATO enabled the United States to dominate European security affairs for four decades. Bush administration didn’t want to lose that standing, particularly as the European Community, which excluded the United States, was forming a closer union. Indeed, for the first and only time in its history, NATO members invoked Article 5. After the United States became bogged down in Iraq, NATO accepted the Bush administration’s request to assume leadership of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan in August 2003.

Source: Washington Post November 20, 2016 21:45 UTC