The decision to invite Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic to join NATO creates the prospect of U.S. involvement in an assortment of nasty ethnic disputes throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Although some advocates of NATO expansion are motivated by a desire to discourage future Russian imperial ambitions, article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty obligates signatories to assist a fellow member that falls victim to aggression from any source. That obligation should trouble all Americans. One of the proposed new members, Hungary, has long-standing problems with three of its neighbors because of discrimination against ethnic Hungarians living in those countries. Tensions are especially acute between Hungary and Serbia over Belgrade's continuing mistreatment of Hungarian citizens in Serbia's province of Vojvodina. If those tensions escalate, NATO could find itself entangled in an armed conflict between Hungary and Serbia. Such a struggle would have no relevance to important American interests, but the United States would be under intense pressure to assist its new ally lest the credibility of the security commitments being extended to the incoming NATO members be fatally undermined. The prospect of U.S. forces' slipping into a Bosnia-style morass on the Hungarian-Serbian border is one reason among many that the U.S. Senate should refuse to ratify the proposal to expand NATO.

The decision to invite Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to join NATO creates the prospect of farreaching, dangerous security obligations for the United States in Eastern Europe. Part of NATO's expanded defensive perimeter will lie along the border between Poland and Belarus. That should greatly concern all Americans, because Belarus is a political and economic volcano waiting to erupt. The repressive, erratic regime of Alexander Lukashenko and the country's moribund economy provide ideal conditions for the same type of armed chaos that has engulfed such countries as Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Zaire.

If Belarus explodes, Poland is going to expect help from its NATO allies to contain the effects and protect Polish security. At the very least, that would mean a Bosnia-style morass for NATO. Even worse, Belarus is Russia's last remaining security ally in Eastern Europe, and the two countries are closely linked politically and militarily by a treaty approved in the spring of 1997. A NATO military presence along the Polish-Belarusian border, much less any attempted coercion of Belarus by NATO, risks a collision with a nuclear-armed Russia. The dangerous situation in Belarus is one reason among many why the U.S. Senate should reject the proposal to expand NATO.