Event Details

The Martin Edmonds Memorial Lecture, hosted by the Centre for War and Diplomacy and the Lancaster Military Heritage Group, will be delivered in 2023 by Professor Winfried Heinemann on 'NATO: The Changing Alliance. 1949-1990 and Beyond'.

This lecture will explain how NATO has managed so far to remain relevant in the ever-changing situations after the end of the Second World War. The chief explanation is that, ultimately, it is not a “military alliance”, but a political structure.

The North Atlantic Treaty was concluded to counter both a political, an economic, and a military threat. Over time, the military threat became more prominent in public perception. However, the two Berlin Crises, the Suez Crisis, the CSCE process, the Dual Track decision all showed that NATO continued to fulfil its three chief roles: to ensure the member countries’ territory against outside threat, to involve the US in European security politics, and not least to serve as a de-facto common security agency. At a time when states that were for over 100 years neutral are applying for membership, NATO seems to be as relevant as ever.

Professor Winfried Heinemann is a military historian who spent his career in the German Armed Forces’ military history services. In 2018, he retired as a Colonel, but continues to teach in the Brandenburg University of Technology at Cottbus (Germany). Winfried studied in the Ruhr University, Bochum, and at King’s College London. His Ph.D. thesis discussed the origins of political cooperation in NATO, indicating his tendency to combine history, security politics, and military questions into a broad approach. Amongst other things, he was a journal editor, the German Armed Forces Centre of Military History’s press spokesperson, and the desk officer responsible for military history in the German Ministry of Defence (1999-2001). He went on to supervise a research project on East German and Warsaw Pact military history. After attending the NATO Defense College, Rome, he eventually served as the Centre of Military History’s Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff. Winfried is the Associate and Book Reviews Editor of the International Journal of Military History and Historiography (Brill). His latest publication is a book placing the 20 July 1944 plot against Hitler in the context of 20^th century German military history. The book won an award providing for its translation so that an English-language version is now available as well. Winfried is also an Honorary Researcher at the Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster.

Please note, the time and location of the lecture will be confirmed in the spring term.