11.   As the Clinton administration debated how to respond to the Balkan crisis, there were signs of sharp divisions inside the Western alliance.

12.   At last one Russian observer in the city, meanwhile, found the sight of the Western alliance foundering in confusion and mutual recrimination rather reassuring.

13.   Asking Europe to accept a total withdrawal of American ground forces from the Balkans needlessly challenges some of the basic assumptions of the Western military alliance.

14.   Before, it acted as a defense organization of the Western alliance to counter the perceived threat from the then-Soviet Union.

15.   After the crumbling of the Soviet empire, the emerging democracies of Central Europe made clear their desire to join the Western alliance as soon as possible.

16.   But it has also sought to broker a peace settlement between its longtime ally, Yugoslavia, and the western alliance.

17.   But in lining up against the Western alliance, Primakov risks antagonizing the governments whose economic help he is now seeking.

18.   But there is also a chance that the western alliance, much like a long marriage, may find itself the stronger for sorting through its differences.

19.   Certainly the Cold War is over, with the Western alliance the victor.

20.   Critics said that the United States was merely inviting further attacks by the Serbs and had abandoned its leadership role in the Western alliance.