After You Beat 'Em, Join 'Em

STUTTGART, Germany: What will NATO do when the Warsaw Pact is gone? U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher proposed Friday that the western military alliance sign up Russia and the former Soviet allies, its former opponents. Christopher is not offering Russia full NATO membership, but rather wants NATO's charter to reflect standing arrangements for consultation and cooperative action between Russia and the alliance, including joint training and involvement of Russia in peacekeeping activities. While Christopher might be trying to compensate a Russia nervous about NATO's continuing campaign to bring Eastern European nations into the alliance, he may not be offering enough balm. "Russia is very suspicious of NATO," says TIME's Bruce Nelan. "It believes correctly that NATO was created as a military alliance to oppose it. That is why the nervous countries in Eastern Europe want to join. The NATO expansion might possibly work with less opposition from Russia if the U.S. and its allies were to bring Russia into close consultations to work out a treaty which deals with the issue. By linking it to other European security agreements and building in an economic payoff with some other confidence-building measures, the Russians might reduce their opposition." -->