NATO in the post-Cold War era: "The New York Times"' reaction to enlargement and to Romania's candidacy

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) witnessed a profound process of adaptation and change. In conjunction with the pursuit of new missions, one of the key elements of the alliance's transformation has been the enlargement to the East. This paper examines the issue of NATO's post-Cold War enlargement in the broader context of its adaptation to the new particularities of the international security environment. The paper suggests that changes in the alliance's mission and in the U.S. interests influenced the politics of enlargement and, consequently, the policy toward candidate countries. Romania's unexpected admission into NATO in the second round illustrates this aspect. A content analysis performed on The New York Times reveals that this newspaper's attitude toward enlargement has changed from negative in the first round to positive in the second round and that it portrayed Romania negatively in both rounds. In addition, the NYT coverage of the candidate countries was not always objective but reflected the U.S. official policy.