International Relations

C05(b) - NATO

Date: Jun 12 | Time: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Location: McGill College 2001 735

Chair/Président/Présidente : Owen Wong (Queen's University)

20 years of the NATO Centres of Excellence program in post-communist Europa: integrated but still dissociated: Anessa Kimball (Université Laval), Bohuslav Pernica (Masaryk University)
Abstract: In this paper we argue NATO Centres of Excellence in post-communist countries had limited impacts due to force of different Purchasing Parity Power (PPP) across partners and the observation several Central and Eastern European (CEE) partners do not use the euro. The effects of their exclusion from the euro imply their capacity to purchase the same commodities is distorted due to exchange rate misalignments. In particular, previous work demonstrated there may be an over-estimation of national currencies functionally preventing these non-eurozone states from having the equivalent power to purchase the same bundle of goods/commodities with their national currencies. Such distortions not only affect budgeting at these Centres in CEE (where national contributions are provided in Euros) but also national military defence budgets from which NATO draws its support to function. We explore how a failure to consider PPP disturbances in those CEE countries is consequential for defence economists and NATO and suggest some implications for policy makers.

The Problem of NATO in the Pacific: Shaun Narine (St. Thomas University)
Abstract: In recent years, American representatives have suggested that NATO should expand its areas of activity and interest to the “Indo-Pacific” region. NATO’s leading officials seems open to this idea. Some Western allies in the region, such as Japan, have also encouraged this expansion. If this happens, however, it will mark a dangerous escalation in the growing confrontation between the Western world (and its allies) and China. This paper examines the political and strategic reasons for NATO to pursue expansion and evaluates the likelihood of this happening. It sets NATO’s aspirations within the context of the efforts of American imperialism to sustain itself and the ramifications of NATO’s ongoing engagement in the Russia-Ukraine war. The paper uses a constructivist analysis to argue that the Western world, led by the US, is in the process of constructing China as an enemy and creating that possibility through its antagonistic and provocative actions. The paper reviews the politics of the expansion of NATO, the question of how NATO is regarded in the global South, and how the creation of enemies and confrontation is an effect of Western colonialism and validated through the use of the theory of “realism.”