NATO's fiftieth anniversary summit in Washington last April had been intended to be a full-scale celebration of a half century of security success in Europe. Instead, as the alliance became deeply mired in the Kosovo War, the entire event was scaled down to a much more political occasion, focussing almost exclusively on the need to maintain alliance solidarity. Faced with potentially damaging splits within its political and military elite, and strong public opposition in several member states, especially Italy and Spain, NATO sought to maintain unity as it escalated the air war against Serbia.
