Mary Elise Sarotte , Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, reflects that the choice to enlarge NATO was a justifiable response to the geopolitics of the 1990s. The problems came later. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: How a Second Cold War could have been averted | Mary Elise Sarotte Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: The 'You are leaving The American Sector' sign at the Checkpoint Charlie crossing point, Berlin Wall. Credit: Greg Balfour Evans / Alamy Stock Photo