Nato: Alliance a la Carte?

A Danish election raises the issue of pick-and-choose defense

Even as Moscow pursued a conciliatory tack in foreign and military policy, NATO was facing new internal challenges to its cohesion. In Denmark last week, conservative Prime Minister Poul Schluter led his coalition government into what he called a "very decisive election" that focused on the country's future role within the 16-nation Western Alliance. He had called the vote after the opposition passed a motion strengthening a 31-year-old ban, never enforced, against nuclear-armed naval vessels' visiting Danish ports. Strict observation of that prohibition would severely hamper the operations of NATO warships in Denmark's waters. Implicitly, the Prime Minister was raising a...

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