Charles A. Kupchan

In April 1998 Congress voted to approve the inclusion of three countries—Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic—into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.S.-led military alliance whose purpose for many years was to defend Western Europe against a possible invasion by the Soviet Union. The demise of the Soviet Union has led to much debate on NATO’s future. In the following viewpoint, Charles A. Kupchan argues that Russia should be the next country admitted into NATO. Russia will be thereby peacefully involved in Europe’s affairs, he contends, and democratic reform will be encouraged within Russia. Kupchan is a professor at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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1. What three...