Relearning the Enemy: NATO’s Post-Cold War Understanding of Russia : Strategic Culture and the Construction of Threats

Sammanfattning

Russia’s renewed centrality in Euro-Atlantic security has reshaped the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) strategic posture. This thesis examines how NATO’s understanding of Russia has evolved since 1991 and how this evolution is reflected in the Alliance’s strategic posture, using a strategic culture framework. The study conceptualises NATO’s strategic culture as dynamic and contested, shaped by competing strategic subcultures, drawing on first- and fourth-generation scholarship on strategic culture. It employs a qualitative content analysis of NATO Strategic Concepts (1991, 1999, 2010, and 2022), complemented by national defence and security documents from France, the United Kingdom, and Poland. Strategic culture is operationalised through three sub-beliefs: threat interpretation, accepted methods of action, and the core task of the military and Alliance. The findings show that NATO’s designation of Russia as a primary threat in 2022 reflects a re-weighting of longstanding cultural assumptions rather than a rupture, highlighting the value of strategic culture for explaining both continuity and change in alliance behaviour.