'In this detailed analysis, a much needed historical perspecitive is provided for contemporary debates with conceptual rigour and precision.' - Professor Stuart Croft, Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham 'The expansion of NATO is one of the great issues of contemporary international politics. In this scholarly and well-written study, however, Dr. Smith demonstrates that questions of inclusion, exclusion and identity are not simply issues of the post-1989 world. In a series of case studies from the cold war period, he shows how membership of the Alliance was (and remains) closely related to perceptions of European order. Challenging the conventional wisdom, the interesting and challenging conclusion which emerges from this study is that there is considerable continuity in Alliance politics between the cold war and post-cold war eras.' - Professor John Baylis, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth '...a timely book that provides a convenient framework for understanding the post-war enlargements of NATO.' - James Sperling, International History Review