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

In the News

Sep 1, 2021

Nasr quoted in The New York Times on Biden’s foreign policy in Afghanistan

By Atlantic Council

Afghanistan Conflict

New Atlanticist

Sep 1, 2021

How to avoid another state-building failure after Afghanistan

By Frank Ruggiero

Why did the United States continue a state-building policy after al-Qaeda was dismantled? And how can it learn to use force to negotiate the peaceful end to its next conflict?

Afghanistan Conflict

TURKEYSource

Aug 27, 2021

What Afghanistan’s fall means for the future of NATO and Turkey

By Atlantic Council IN TURKEY

Former Turkish Ambassador Alper Coşkun joins the Atlantic Council IN TURKEY to discuss the implications of recent developments in Afghanistan to the NATO alliance and the future of Turkey's foreign policy and engagement with Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Conflict

In the News

Aug 26, 2021

Binnendijk in Defense News: Here’s how Biden could mitigate damage done by the Afghan withdrawal

By Hans Binnendijk

Hans Binnendijk and Robert Bell write that the United States must act quickly to mitigate the damage done to America’s global credibility and alliance leadership

Afghanistan Arms Control

New Atlanticist

Aug 25, 2021

Why the US failure in Afghanistan won’t break NATO

By Michael John Williams

Europeans shouldn't draw narrow conclusions about the security risks they’ll face based on the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.

Afghanistan European Union

In the News

Aug 23, 2021

Nasr quoted in VOA on NATO’s European leaders also being blamed for the situation in Afghanistan

By Atlantic Council

Afghanistan Conflict

In the News

Aug 23, 2021

Wieslander quoted in New York Times on Afghanistan

“The withdrawal fiasco will revive the strategic autonomy argument, but the best result, she said, would be ‘a European pillar in NATO’ that could — with major investment — provide some of the strategic airlift, surveillance, reconnaissance and command and control that only the Americans now provide. ‘If we want more capacity and burden-sharing,’ Ms. […]

Afghanistan Europe & Eurasia

In the News

Aug 20, 2021

Nooruddin joins DW to discuss the US, NATO, and the situation in Afghanistan

By Atlantic Council

Afghanistan Conflict

Experts react

Aug 18, 2021

Experts react: What the fall of Afghanistan means for Europe

By Atlantic Council experts

As policymakers in Washington grapple with the stark reality of losing Afghanistan, their counterparts across Europe are no less flummoxed over what happens next. Will Brussels be as ready to support future American foreign policy initiatives?

Afghanistan Conflict

New Atlanticist

Aug 17, 2021

Vietnam’s lessons for the Afghanistan failure: Don’t count out US leadership just yet

By Daniel Fried

What will the debacle in Afghanistan mean for US strategy in the world and for its friends and allies who are watching all of this with dismay? For that question, the answer may lie in the consequences of US failure in Vietnam.

Afghanistan Conflict

Experts

Events