This is a carefully crafted, easily read, politically "mainstream" survey of the Atlantic alliance: past, present and future. As such it has much merit and should be on the reading list of what has come to be known as the "successor generation" to NATO's founders. The author, at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, has been knowledgeably tracking NATO's development for many years. The elements of continuity in the alliance are evident and well chronicled; the evolution which has occurred-greater than often acknowledged-is accurately noted; and as to the future, Sloan calls for a stronger European "pillar" within NATO to correct the mismatch between Europe's potential and current power.
