Global: NATO's 21st-century task - going from 'Europe' to 'global'

Ever since the breakup of the Soviet Union, NATO has been working to transform itself from a cold-war, Europe-focused bulwark against a communist threat to a military and political alliance relevant to the world of the 21st century. The answer has been for an expanded NATO - now including some of the very Eastern European nations that were formerly considered the enemy - to broaden its sense of defense and to take on out-of-area challenges that are seen as crucial to global security broadly and the West's well-being specifically.