NATO Enlargement: Cost Implications for the United States Remain Unclear

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on issues related to the cost and financial obligations of expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), focusing on: (1) current U.S. costs to support NATO's common budgets and other funding that supports relations with central and east European nations and promotes NATO enlargement; (2) NATO's defense planning process, which will form the basis for more definitive cost estimates for an enlarged alliance; and (3) GAO's evaluation of the recent Department of Defense (DOD) study of NATO expansion and a comparison of DOD's study with studies of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Rand Corporation.