Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 1,0, University of Wroclaw, language: English, abstract: After the end of the Soviet Communism, the NATO was described bymany experts as a dying institution. Kenneth Waltz, an Americanpolitical scientist judged the NATO in 1990 as a disappearing thingand he forecasted, that its only a question of time until this institutionwill become insignificant.1 The big common enemy was missing and theprobability of a new rising threat for western civilization was about zero.The need of article V, including its security guarantees seemed to beuseless and therewith the raison dêtre of the biggest multilateralintergovernmental security community was lost. Critics see the NATOas a relic from the Cold War and suspect the United States of Americato utilize this institution in order to enlarge and intensify their worldwidesphere of influence.2 The only fait accompli is the fact that NATO haschanged. To underline this statement General Secretary Robertson waswearing a t-shirt, with the slogan This aint your daddys NATO, at theNATO summit 2003 in Colorado Springs.3 The question accrues whatthe NATO exactly is in our days and if the changes made, since 1990are significant enough to guarantee the survival of the biggestmultilateral military alliance? The following essay analyzes what theNATO is and investigates the different future scenarios of the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organization.