| Summary/Abstract |
This article posits that most postcommunist members of NATO and key partners continue the practice of using communist concepts of command at the national level of governance. These concepts include the hyper-centralization of decision making, collective decision making, and of most concern, unclear chains of command and alignment of authority with responsibility. Combined, these concepts have the potential for inhibiting the timely and clear command of a nation's armed forces, let alone their effective assimilation into the alliance's integrated command structure. Such an eventuality has clearly negative implications for the alliance generally, but these weaknesses also could have the unexpected consequence of compromising “new” allies' national sovereignty in crisis and war.
|