On September 8, Ashford participated in a panel discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies around a new paper on the future of NATO expansion and was appointed a Nonresident Fellow at the Modern War Institute as West Point for the 2021-2022 academic year.
“Past NATO expansion helped create a Europe whole, free, and at peace, but future expansion, should it occur, faces a hostile and militarily revitalized Russia. What might be the military requirements and resulting budget costs of extending NATO’s Article 5 commitment to countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, or Bosnia-Herzegovina, which are actively seeking NATO membership or even Sweden and Finland, about which there has been analysis and speculation about membership? How might NATO incorporate such considerations into its decision-making?”