Letters

No to NATO expansion

SIR--Madeleine Albright's article on enlarging NATO (February 15th) fails to answer an important question: how can an enlarged NATO remain an effective decision-making organisation? Decisions by consensus are difficult enough with the present membership. With 20 or more members, they may become impossible. NATO needs to work quickly to identify crises and decide what action, if any, needs to be taken. An even more unwieldy machinery than at present, with new members unused to working by consensus, will fail.