Since the Libya War in 2011 it has been widely suggested that NATO's role in US security policy has diminished, because Washington gives Europe less and Asia more strategic priority (a tendency that is reinforced by budget restraints), and because the US is no longer interested in always leading NATO activities that mainly concern European conditions. Several experts have suggested that the US expect that the European security challenges primarily should be handled by NATO's European allies in a new transatlantic burden sharing model, and that the US role should principally be Article V-focused. This book investigates to what extent these claims are valid, and what consequences they may have for European and international security.

NATO's Balancing Act evaluates the alliance's performance of its three core tasks--collective defense, crisis management, and cooperative security--and reviews its members' efforts to achieve the right balance among them. Yost considers NATO's role in the evolving global security environment and its implications for collective defense and crisis management in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Africa, Libya, and elsewhere.

Forfatteren var forsker ved the Brookings Institution, og bogen handler om alle de militære og politiske omstændigheder, de nationale særstandpunkter og de fælles forsvarsinteresser, der gennem tiden havde øvet indflydelse på NATO's nukleare planlægning.