What is NATO's purpose in the 21st century?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also known as NATO, was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada and other Western European Nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. Today, NATO has 29 member countries with the common objective of guaranteeing the freedom and safety of its members through political and military needs. NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes and does all it can to prevent conflict.

NATO's role today has certainly changed from that of the past. NATO's original purpose was to defend the member nations from Communism and the Soviet threat. However, what do you do when that threat is no longer eminent? Today it can be argued it is an organization with no purpose. There seems to be a quarrel about what a military organization created to fight this threat should do now that the threat no longer exists.

NATO identifies its three main functions as: collective defense, crisis management, and collective security. Since the end of the Cold War their have been various shifts within the organization such as defense spending and the rise in power of non-state actors. In the 21st century what NATO needs is some sort of reform. In doing so NATO must redefine the goals of its organization and member states and what it stands for.