NATO’s Meaning and Existence

Entities, events, phenomena and states of affairs of the sphere of international relations/ interstate interactions are purely intersubjective recognisances. Their “subjects”, in particular the States, are themselves pre-theoretically, intersubjectively co-constituted and temporalised, ascribed with subject qualities especially in their “interactions” and experienced as such through intentional acts of perceiving, defining, remembering, anticipating, judging and so on. The said ascription includes their own community-building dynamics within an also intersubjectively given environment of interstate interactions. NATO is one of the most prominent State-communities. It has not only been defined by but has also been a constituent of the environment in which it existed. It gained its meaning from its existential relationship with its constituent State-subjects, its interactional counterparts and the meaningful appearance of its “environment”, and also made part of their meaningful appearances. NATO existed through transformations of environment and counterpart(s), continuing to be valid and viable in different identities and temporalisations. It is currently being re-identified and re-temporalised face to a new transformation of the interstate environment.

Studying NATO requires co-studying its constituents, counterparts and environment in their substances and temporal states as they are given pre-theoretically, immediately, intersubjectively, which form parts of an expanded, existential kind of reality lived and lived-within by true subjects, replacing the objectivity in its narrow sense with meaningfulness, appearing as objectivity itself on the ground of a universal, pre-theoretical, immediate familiarity and intelligibility ground. Studying NATO “as is” in its identities and temporalisations with its environment, constituents and counterparts requires access to that pre-theoretical ground of meaningful, intersubjective appearances. Here, phenomenology and the phenomenological ontology offer useful concepts and tools which, due to the particular nature of the IR field, complement each other for conducting such a study of the “being and time” of NATO.

Introduction

Chapter 1 Preliminary Remarks on the Intersubjective Nature of the IR Entities, Phenomena, Events and States of Affairs
On the differentiation of existential reality from objectivity in its narrow sense
On the coexistence and interaction of existential reality with objectivity in its narrow sense: The subject as intersection
The subject act’s essentiality to reality
On the nature of reality: Intersubjectivity
Subjectivity and intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity of the State and its differentiation from the community

Chapter 2 On IR Theorising
The natural attitude and the act of theorising
Validity and accuracy of theorising
The peculiarity of the field of international relations as interstate interactions in comparison with social sciences: the subject question
The genetic function of IR theorising
Complications of IR theorising as exemplified through its main axes

Chapter 3 On the Useful Aspects of Phenomenology
Need for a pre-theoretical inquiry in the IR field
Phenomenological attitude and the epoché
Intersubjectivity
Intentionality
Temporality and Temporalisation

Chapter 4 States, their Acts and Communities
The idea of the State
Further remarks on the State as subject simulacrum
Approaching the State as subject simulacrum
State subject’s acts
The intersubjective environement of State subjects’ interactions: polarity as reference
Alliance
Security community

Chapter 5 On NATO’s and its Original Environment’s Formative Phase
The passage from multipolarity to bipolarity
NATO within the bipolar environment of interstate interactions: Questions of context, origin and substance
NATO’s identity and temporalisation during the formative phase of bipolarity

Chapter 6 NATO and its Original Environment’s Intermediate, Transitory and Terminal Phases
NATO’s identity and temporalisation during the intermediate phase of bipolarity
The détente as a transitory phase toward the end of bipolarity
NATO and the terminal phase of bipolarity

Chapter 7 On the Unipolar/Post-Bipolar Transformation and the Question of NATO’s Existence
The initial appearance of post-bipolarity: The unipolarity question in IR theorising
Unipolarity as the intersubjectively meaningful givenness of the interstate environment
NATO and the problematic of bipolarity’s endOn the existential grounds of NATO’s continuity within unipolarity: the deficient nature of the transformation from bipolarity

Chapter 8 NATO’s Dual Identification and Temporalisation during the Early Phase of Unipolarity
NATO’s existential formula of dual identification and temporalisation
NATO’s evolution as an institution of the unipolar security community during the earlier phase of unipolarity: indicators through the main documents

Chapter 9 Intervention and Enlargement: NATO’s Part in the Unipolar Assertiveness and Attraction during the Earlier Phase of Unipolarity
NATO-conducted or assisted interventions during the earlier phase of unipolarity: the unipolar assertiveness
NATO enlargement: the unipolar attraction

Chapter 10 The Erosion of the Earlier Unipolar Setup and of NATO’s Dual Identity and Temporalisation
The question of the Russian Federation’s coexistence with the unipole and its security community on the grounds of the deficient unipolar transformation
The Russian State subject’s perception of and involvement with the unipole and NATO during the earlier phase of unipolarity as expressed in her fundamental policy papers
Russia’s attempts to define and establish coexistence with unipolarity through “attraction” and “assertiveness” among the ex-USSR countries: the “Near-abroad”
Two different meanings of coexistence and the consequent frustration of Russian policies

Chapter 11 The Later Phase of Unipolarity: the Appearance and the Extent of the “Reversal” through Russian Assertiveness
Toward the 2007 Munich Security Summit
2007 Munich Security Conference, 2008 NATO Summit of Bucharest, and the Vancouver to Vladivostok move: Russia’s targeting NATO for “coexistence”
The Georgian War and the concretisation of the “reversal”

Chapter 12 The Phenomenon of Centrifugality, the Reset, and its Collapse
Centrifugality
The Reset
Toward the Reset’s Collapse: the Arab Spring
NATO-Russia relations during the period of the Reset’s collapse

Chapter 13 Toward the End Process of NATO’s Dual Identity and Temporalisation: The Ukrainian Crisis of 2014 and its Aftermath
The meaning grounds of the Ukrainian Crisis of 2014
The Crisis of 2014
Sanctions as the collective West’s reaction and their balancing
NATO and Russia after the Ukrainian Crisis through their fundamental documents

Chapter 14 Unipolarity, NATO and the War
Toward the war: NATO, the unipole, Russia and Ukraine
The meaning of the war: unipolarity and Russia
The war: aid to Ukraine, NATO and Russia
The meaning of peace: unipolarity and NATO
Conclusion

References
Books and articles
Official Documents, Reports, Speeches, News
Articles

Index

Yunus Emre Ozigci holds a PhD degree in Political Sciences from the Université Catholique de Louvain. He graduated from the Galatasaray University (International Relations) and completed his MA studies at the University of Ankara (International Relations). His research interests and publications -academic journal articles and chapters in edited books- cover the IR theory, phenomenology and its use in IR studies, nature of and transformations in the international structure, the US’s, Russian, German and Chinese foreign policies, NATO and the Western alignment in general, specific subjects such as “appeasement”, “intervention and disengagement” and “interactions between regional and global systems”.
Since 2000, he has been working as a diplomat in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served in Algeria, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia and Kenya (UNON). Between his duty tours, he served in the directorates of the Council of Europe and Human Rights, Cyprus, Western Europe and Environment. Currently, he is working as a Head of Department in the Directorate-General of Africa.

International relations, NATO, Phenomenology, Russia, International relations theory, unipolarity, bipolarity