Reviving flexible response: An assessment of NATO’s Russian strategy on the Alliance’s 70th anniversary

This article reviews NATO’s embrace of a new political and military strategy toward the Soviet Union in the second half of the 1960s and seeks to determine whether the tools that were singled out then in the debate over strategy could help overcome the current stalemate between the Alliance and the Russian Federation. Between 1967 and 1969, NATO adopted the Harmel Report and embraced the doctrine of ‘flexible response’ to retain relevance in a rapidly transforming international system. At 70 the dynamics faced by the Alliance place NATO at a similarly critical juncture. A rekindled strategy of 'flexible response' might help the Alliance preserve a premier role in Euro-Atlantic security and strike a durable arrangement with Moscow.