Introduction

Abstract

The introduction makes the case for addressing the issue of the Euro-Atlantic security system in the 21st century and explains the importance of the system and of its evolution form cooperation to rivalry and crisis. The author adopts the neorealist perspective as a method of analysis, and refers to the premises championed by Kenneth Waltz, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. The book has three parts. The first presents the background for the analysis, i.e., the origins of the Euro-Atlantic security system (Chap. 1 ), the changing challenges and threats faced by that system (Chap. 2 ), and the security concepts of the system’s participants (Chap. 3 ); the second contains an analysis of the functioning of the system—from cooperation to crisis (Chaps. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ); while the third presents the consequences of the erosion of cooperation within the system leading to the Ukraine crisis, and shows the prospects for the system’s evolution.