Mission with reservations
https://doi.org/10.46272/IT.2025.23.3.82.5
Abstract
The growing tendency to treat technological development as a matter of security among other things stimulates research on science, technology and innovation activities within military alliances. The article focuses on NATO science and technology (S&T) cooperation which has been among its least examined functions up to date. The topic’s relevance is created by the current effort to construct a new mission for the Alliance, namely sponsoring next-generation dual-use technologies known as emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs). Cooperative S&T mechanisms have been functioning almost since the very beginning of NATO. The author introduces a structured concept of NATO’s S&T development. The goal is to find out the purpose of this non-core mission as well as to evaluate its impact on how the Alliance has evolved. Cooperative S&T projects were designed to strengthen the allied capabilities and, more significantly, compensate for intra-alliance rifts. Later they transformed into an additional venue to engage non-NATO countries. NATO S&T prompted internationalization of some transatlantic activities. However, its effectiveness was questionable and new collisions were induced. NATO’s shift to EDTs falls into the established pattern (ensuring Allied cohesion through functional expansion). At the same time the recently created tools for promoting innovation put the Alliance into a new position in the global technological race – as an active participant and major platform for steering Transatlantic technological development. Claiming this ambitious role poses a question about the sufficiency of the current political basis and the bounds of possibility.
About the Author
Alexander E. Pavlov
Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Mr Alexander E. Pavlov – Junior Research Fellow, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO)
Moscow, 117997
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For citations:
Pavlov A.E. Mission with reservations. International Trends / Mezhdunarodnye protsessy. 2025;23(3):22-40. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.46272/IT.2025.23.3.82.5
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