Daniel Vernet on NATO's dual character

Le Monde newspaper analyses NATO's significance today: "Since the end of the Cold War NATO has never stopped questioning its own existence. After losing the enemy it was founded to fight in 1949 - the Soviet bloc - it could have just faded away or become a pan-European security institution. ... It survived, oscillating between its original military character and its essentially political status. In this form it has three main tasks: maintaining the American presence in Europe, ... uniting the European democracies and ensuring the security of the Old Continent - not against but in conjunction with Russia. ... The war against the Taliban and the Russia-Georgia conflict have now posed NATO with a double challenge and called into question its dual military and political character."

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