Enduring Alliance

A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order

By: Timothy Andrews Sayle

Narrated by: John B. Leen

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Born from necessity, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has always seemed on the verge of collapse. At this moment of incipient strategic crisis, Timothy A. Sayle offers a sweeping history of the most critical alliance in the post-World War II era.

In Enduring Alliance, Sayle recounts how the Western European powers, along with the United States and Canada, developed a treaty to prevent encroachments by the Soviet Union and to serve as a first defense in any future military conflict.

As the growing and unruly hodgepodge of countries, councils, commands, and committees inflated NATO during the Cold War, Sayle shows that the work of executive leaders, high-level diplomats, and institutional functionaries within NATO kept the alliance alive and strong in the face of changing administrations, various crises, and the flux of geopolitical maneuverings.

As Enduring Alliance deftly shows, the history of NATO is organized around the balance of power, preponderant military forces, and plans for nuclear war. But it is also the history riven by generational change, the introduction of new approaches to conceiving international affairs, and the difficulty of diplomacy for democracies.

The book is published by Cornell University Press.

"A must-read for policymakers seeking to ensure the Pax Atlantic is the indispensable and truly enduring alliance of our times." (Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret), supreme allied commander at NATO, 2009-2013)

"Must-read for scholars of history, security studies, and institutions, as well as anyone concerned about the state of NATO today." (Francis J. Gavin, author of Nuclear Statecraft)

"An ambitious, wide-ranging, and much-needed book in the development of inter-alliance politics within NATO." (Matthew Jones, professor of international history, London School of Economics)

©2019 Cornell University (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks

A good starting point, but leaves out the other view

It’s not a bad book to understand NATO, but it leaves out the Soviet Union and Russian views. To understand war, you must look at both sides to get a clear picture.

Excellent Précis of NATO in the 20th century

This book was a well written account of NATO during the last century with a primary focus on the 50s and 60s though it did go up to the period of German reunification and a few minutes on the breakdown of Yugoslavia and the Afghan war. What Nato had to offer was not just security but a way of smoothing out the politics of its members and as long as there is a mutual enemy it will continue to be necessary and valuable. If and when Russia changes or declines is when there truly will be an existential crisis. As this book shows all leaders of its member states found NATO useful with some grumbling, especially by de Gaulle. The narration was solid for a nonfiction work such as this.

Strong on the 1st 40 years, weak on the last 30.

This is an excellent history of the origins of NATO and its challenges during the Cold War. But if you're looking for a book to help understand NATO since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the politics of the Eastward expansion of NATO and the role of that in Russia/US relations - this is not a helpful source. The last 30 years - especially the last 20 are very abbreviated at the end of the book.