Explaining NATO Enlargement: International Relations Theories and the Dynamics of Domestics Politics in Russia and the United States

Abstract

This article focuses on NATO’s expansion after the Cold War. Neorealist, neoliberal, and constructivist approaches and their failures in explaining the causes of NATO’s expansion are highlighted. The timing and the nature of NATO’s expansion are much better explained by the concatenation of specific domestic political dynamics in the United States and Russia. In the United States, the rise of the Republicans who captured the Congress in 1994 and the presidency in 2000 provided the impetus for NATO’s expansion, along with the influence of what the current author calls the “East European Lobby” in U.S. politics. In Russia, the strength of the Communists and the ultranationalists in the Duma, and the rise of the siloviki, cadres with a military-security background, to positions of executive power, was of decisive importance in the polarization of Russian-American relations, which motivated further NATO expansions.

Keywords

NATO Expansion, Neorealism, Constructivism, Domestic Politics, Republican Party

Citation

Aktürk, Şener, “Explaining NATO Enlargement: International Relations Theories and the Dynamics of Domestics Politics in Russia and the United States”, International Relations, Volume 9, Issue 34 (Summer 2012), pp. 73-97.

Affiliations

• Şener AKTÜRK, Assistant Professor, Koç University, Department of International Relations