NATO's security policy in Eastern Europe and its impact on relations with Russia

NATO was established in 1949 by Western states under the leadership of the United States against the USSR as an artifact of the Cold War, and its raison d'être became questionable with the dissolution of the USSR. In order to ensure its legitimacy and adapt to the changing international system, NATO has continuously changed and transformed since 1990 until today. Within the framework of its policies of change and transformation, NATO has improved its relations with countries defined as former enemies, admitting some of them into the alliance as members and establishing various areas of cooperation with others. Within the scope of these policies, NATO has developed some relations with Russia. However, NATO's policies have positively or negatively affected NATO-Russia relations. This study analyzes NATO's post-Cold War policies in Eastern Europe and evaluates how they affected NATO-Russia relations. The study used qualitative methods, sources were reviewed and evaluations were made. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the policies pursued by NATO in Eastern Europe through partnership programs such as KAIK, BIO and AAOK had a positive impact on NATO-Russia relations in general. However, NATO's "enlargement policies", "out-of-area intervention" and the "Missile Shield" project in Eastern Europe have had a negative impact on NATO-Russia relations. In particular, NATO's enlargement policy caused the relations to progress in a negative direction, almost reaching the stage of conflict.