| The debate over NATO's future intensified after the Prague summit in November 2002 when the Alliance was deemed to have given itself a global role in the war on terror through the creation of the NATO Response Force (NRF). However, squabbles inside the Alliance over Iraq and continuing uncertainties about the potential future role of NATO forces 'out of area' re-launched the debate in the spring of 2003. Experts remain bitterly divided between the 'NATO is Dead' school and the 'NATO Rides Again' schools. One key to the future lies in the viability of the NRF as a form of glue, which can hold the EU member state, and the US together. Prague heralded a new honeymoon between the two sides of the Atlantic, but both political and military problems confront attempts to operationalize any matchmaking role for the NRF. Meanwhile, ESDP continues to make steady progress towards its own 'Headline Goal' of military forces. Whether NATO as an alliance or ESDP as an autonomous political-military project will become the priority concern of the individual EU member states depends in large measure on the future course of EU-US relations and on unforeseen 'events', but in the current climate it is difficult to express optimism about a renewed harmonious partnership between the two sides of the Atlantic |