Transatlantic security is often seen as just the sum of security
issues that transatlantic countries face, individually or
collectively. It is this, but it is also more. It is the fact of
being part of a "community of destiny," whose members try to
support one another's security because they have learned that
their fates are intertwined. It is also a concept, at once
idealistic and highly realistic, of the role of transatlantic
unity in providing stability in the world at large and in laying
the grounds for the global future. The varied specific issues of
security are important within this context, which gives them an
overarching unity. From 1949 to 1989, transatlantic security
issues were primarily defined by the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) and its mission – deterring the Soviet
invasion of Western Europe. However, after the fall of the
Soviet Union, both transatlantic security and NATO entered a
period of both introspection and eastward expansion. During that
time, many called for the end of N