By Sophie
In case you have been absent from the local news the past few months: next week The Hague will host the NATO Summit. A multitude of international leaders will descend on our City of Peace and Justice, and the amount of security measures are, quite frankly, astounding. Good luck to everyone living anywhere near the World Forum trying to get in and out of their streets, and everyone else be sure to check which highways will be closed and which public transport will be rerouted how during the coming two weeks. And good luck, of course, to all of the delegates. May something workable and peaceable be achieved.
To mark the occasion, we thought we’d round up some books about NATO. Undoubtedly the delegates will have read all of these already…
1. NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine, a History of the World’s Most Powerful Alliance – Sten Rynning
Published to coincide with NATO’s 75th anniversary this year, this offers a sweeping history of NATO, from its Cold War beginnings to the current fraught state of the (Western) world with Russia’s war on Ukraine. It delves into the inner politics that shape the alliance, as well as the outside forces propelling its direction. Rynning is a professor at the University of Southern Denmark, with NATO and a focus on “war, alliance cooperation, and efforts to control and rein in the use of armed force” as his specialty subjects. He offers insights into both NATO’s strenghts and its weaknesses.
2. Deterring Armageddon: A Biography of NATO – Peter Apps
Another NATO biography that coincided with the 75th anniversary, this time by Reuters columnist, journalist, and TED speaker Peter Apps. Like Rynning’s book this is an overall history of the alliance, focusing on the inner politics and decision-making as well as the various crises, both military and political, that it is duty-bound to respond to or try to prevent.
3. Defense of the West: Transatlantic Security from Truman to Trump – Stanley R. Sloan
Another general overview, but published slightly earlier than the previous two titles, and from an American author. He focuses somewhat more on the separate states that comprise the alliance, and analyzes their various failures and shortcomings. He still values cooperation and alliance as the best way forward, and makes the case that it’s as vitally important now as it ever was.
4. Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate – M. E. Sarotte
Unlike the previous 3 titles, this book focuses on one pivotal moment: the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the agreement made between U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet leader Mikhael Gorbatchev. If the Soviet Union let Germany reunify, the invisible NATO border would move “not one inch” further eastwards. Of course, idealistic words seldom lead to long-lasting structured results. This book looks at the 3 decades since that moment, and how and why things did move, and by more than an inch. M. E. Sarotte is the only female author on this list, by the way (tell-tale sign: initials rather than a full first name)(this also holds true for other genres where one gender overwhelmingly dominates authorship, like Sci-Fi and Romance).
5. NATO Divided, NATO United: The Evolution of an Alliance – Lawrence S. Kaplan
This title is somewhat older (from 2004), and consequently focuses more on the “war on terror” after the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. Its main focus is on how fraught an alliance inherently is, especially between nations that differ so greatly not only in size but also in culture. He also discusses how the lack of a common enemy is a thorny subject for a military alliance – something that in 2025 doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore, sadly.
More books on NATO can by found on our highlights list.
Other titles that might grab your interest:
Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis – Robert D. Kaplan
An urgent exploration of a world in constant crisis, where every regional disaster threatens to become a global conflict, with lessons from history that can stop the spiral.
The author will be in The Hague for a BorderKitchen event on 25 June.
The Ambassadors: Thinking about Diplomacy from Machiavelli to Modern Times – Robert Cooper
History does not run in straight lines. It is made by men and women and by accident. The path of events and ideas does not stretch smoothly from Thucydides, through Machiavelli and thence to perpetual peace. Instead of inevitable progress, what we get is more often false starts, blind allies, random events, good intentions that go wrong. This is therefore not a continuous diplomatic history. Richelieu and Mazarin inhabited a world we can hardly imagine today; but it is from their time that we can begin to see the outline of today’s Europe.
And Then What?: Despatches From the Heart of 21st-Century Diplomacy, From Kosovo to Kiev – Catherine Ashton
From 2009 to 2014, Cathy Ashton was the EU’s first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, effectively Europe’s foreign policy supremo responsible for coordinating the EU’s response to international crises. From the frozen conflict of Ukraine to the Serbia-Kosovo deal, there were challenges, failures and moments of success. She encountered dictators and war criminals, and witnessed the aftermath of natural disasters, military action, and political instability.
