LOOK BACK ON THE WASHINGTON SUMMIT

Atlantic Council at the NATO Summit in Washington

Live commentary, authoritative analysis, and high-level events covering NATO’s Washington summit, courtesy of our experts.

Essays on the Alliance’s future

NATO’s seventy-fifth anniversary is a milestone in a remarkable story of reinvention, adaptation, and unity. However, as the Alliance seeks to secure its future for the next seventy-five years, it faces revanchist old rivals, escalating strategic competition, and uncertainties over the future of the rules-based international order. 

With partners and allies turning attention from celebrations to challenges, the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative invited contributors to engage with the most pressing concerns ahead of the historic Washington summit and chart a path for the Alliance’s future. This series features seven essays focused on concrete issues that NATO must address at the Washington summit and five essays that examine longer-term challenges the Alliance must confront to ensure transatlantic security. 

Related program

The Transatlantic Security Initiative, in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, shapes and influences the debate on the greatest security challenges facing the North Atlantic Alliance and its key partners.

Content

UkraineAlert

Jan 7, 2025

Putin’s peace plan is actually a call for Ukraine’s capitulation

By Serhii Kuzan

Donald Trump has vowed to end Russia's war in Ukraine, but Vladimir Putin's proposed peace terms leave little room for doubt that the Kremlin dictator remains intent on erasing Ukrainian statehood entirely, writes Serhii Kuzan.

Conflict Disinformation

In the News

Jan 3, 2025

Michta in 19FortyFive and RealClearDefense on connecting NATO funding and capabilities

On December 23, Andrew Michta, director and senior fellow of the GeoStrategy Initiative, published an article in 19FortyFive on connecting NATO funding and capabilities. He underlines that, while many NATO allies have increased their defense spending since 2014, the geopolitical threats facing the Alliance mean greater funding and forces are necessary. The piece was featured […]

Conflict Europe & Eurasia

UkraineAlert

Jan 2, 2025

Lithuania prioritizes defense spending amid growing Russian threat

By Agnia Grigas

Lithuania's new government is planning to increase defense spending as the Baltic nation faces up to the growing threat posed by Putin's Russia amid uncertainty over the US role in European security, writes Agnia Grigas.

Conflict Defense Industry

New Atlanticist

Dec 18, 2024

Beyond NATO’s 2 percent threshold: How can Italy meet the challenge?

By Gabriele Natalizia and Matteo Mazziotti di Celso

For the past decade, Rome has leaned more on deploying its troops abroad to contribute to the Alliance than on increasing its overall defense spending. That needs to change.

Italy NATO

Inflection Points Today

Dec 13, 2024

Monitoring the global ‘Trump effect’

By Frederick Kempe

The incoming president is already making waves in China, Iran, Ukraine, and NATO as he articulates goals and the world responds to them.

China Europe & Eurasia
A Swedish flag is raised during a flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters following the accession of Sweden to the alliance, in Brussels, Belgium March 11, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Issue Brief

Dec 13, 2024

How a new global defense bank—the ‘Defense, Security, and Resilience Bank’—can solve US and allied funding problems

By Rob Murray

A perennial problem for NATO is getting member states to meet their financial commitments, which include the pledge to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense. A bank specifically focused on funding defense projects could offer a way out of the political impasse—and keep NATO technologically up to speed.

Europe & Eurasia International Financial Institutions

In the News

Dec 10, 2024

Michta in RealClearDefense and RealClearWorld on a new approach to NATO

On December 9, Andrew Michta, director and senior fellow of the GeoStrategy Initiative, published an article in RealClearDefense on why the United States must rethink its approach to NATO. He outlines that, due to the wide range of challenges facing the Alliance, the next US president should focus efforts toward the countries in the Northeast […]

Europe & Eurasia NATO

Report

Dec 10, 2024

Europe and the United States need to revolutionize their defense industrial bases—and how they cooperate

By Rob Murray

With powerful state and nonstate actors challenging the post-World War II international order, innovation in the tech sector happening at breakneck speed, and climate change threats, NATO allies must rethink traditional defense cooperation to stay relevant.

Europe & Eurasia NATO

TURKEYSource

Dec 6, 2024

What the US-Turkey relationship will look like during Trump 2.0

By Rich Outzen

The second Trump term presents new opportunities and risks for US-Turkey relations.

Elections Middle East

New Atlanticist

Dec 4, 2024

How the Nordic-Baltic states are leading the way on European security

By Anna Wieslander

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden are becoming increasingly significant to security on the continent.

NATO Northern Europe

Experts