Final dissertation : "NATO in the Age of Multipolarism : Strategic Partnerships as the New Alliances"

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to understand how NATO’s strategic partnerships transformed the Alliance’s perceptions of security in the post-Cold War context. Traditional NATO’s collective security does not function through partnerships, as partners are not members. However, the cooperative approach to security, making partners a stakeholder in collective security, significantly elevates the role of strategic partnerships in enhancing security and projecting stability in Europe and beyond, due to partners’ active engagements in operational activities led by NATO. Theoretically, the English School of International Relations theory is chosen. It analyses the principal reasons why strategic partnerships change NATO’s perceptions of security in the post-Cold War context. Methodologically, it is an interpretive research design, following a post-Positivist approach along with the state-of-the-art structure stating that NATO strategic partnerships constitute the Alliance’s de facto new operational model in Europe. Qualitative methodology helps to exemplify NATO-Turkey in the context of an inter-alliance crisis and NATO-Russia relations as an external crisis. The key findings of this thesis are that the concept of strategic partnerships is included in NATO’s cooperative approach to security, meaning partners are at the centre and future of the Alliance’s collective security and Strategic Concept.