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

Apr 3, 2021

Binnendijk in Defense News: NATO’s focus on China is too narrow

By Hans Binnendijk

Hans Binnendijk published an article that urges Europe and NATO to acknowledge China’s multi-dimensional threats, and suggests how Europe can be better positioned to avoid Chinese aggression.

China Europe & Eurasia

NATO 20/2020

Apr 2, 2021

Digitalize the enterprise: NATO 20/2020 podcast

By Barry Pavel, Jeffrey Lightfoot

If NATO is to unlock new frontiers of innovation and harness emerging technology, digitalizing how it does business is the key.

Defense Technologies Digital Policy

In the News

Apr 2, 2021

Wieslander as a panelist at Princeton University Center for International Security Studies (CISS) Annual Conference – “Europe and the Future of Security”

Europe & Eurasia NATO

New Atlanticist

Mar 31, 2021

When did ‘ally’ become a dirty word?

By Julia Friedlander

The solutions to the twenty-first century’s transnational problems can only come as the result of true collective action. This will require the Biden administration—and US leaders more broadly—to reimagine the architecture of its alliance-building, starting with the talking points.

NATO Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Mar 26, 2021

Opportunity knocks for NATO and its partners in the Asia-Pacific

By Mirna Galic

Although NATO and its Asia-Pacific partners have developed their relations over the past two decades, various constraints have limited the ambition and potential of these relationships. But there may be a change of the status quo on the horizon.

East Asia Indo-Pacific

NATO 20/2020

Mar 23, 2021

Design a Digital Marshall Plan: NATO 20/2020 podcast

By The Hon. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)

NATO allies, led by the United States, must cooperate in securing national 5G communications systems in Europe and beyond against malign Chinese influence.

Cybersecurity Digital Policy

New Atlanticist

Mar 23, 2021

How Russia, China, and climate change are shaking up the Arctic

By Larry Luxner

The Kremlin’s increasing military activities in the Arctic are worrying Norway—the only NATO member country that borders Russia north of the Arctic Circle. Frank Bakke-Jensen, Norway’s minister of defense, outlined his concerns.

Crisis Management Defense Technologies

New Atlanticist

Mar 23, 2021

The Arctic is a place of unusual international cooperation. Can that last?

By Larry Luxner

For decades, Norway’s policy towards neighboring Russia has balanced “between deterrence and reassurance” and combined “firmness and predictability,” says Ine Eriksen Søreide, the country’s minister of foreign affairs. “This policy remains unchanged. But it has become an ever more challenging task in the face of a steadily deteriorating security environment.”

Crisis Management Defense Technologies

Issue briefs and reports

Mar 22, 2021

The China plan: A transatlantic blueprint for strategic competition

By Hans Binnendijk, Sarah Kirchberger, James Danoy, Franklin D. Kramer, Connor McPartland, Christopher Skaluba, Clementine G. Starling, Didi Kirsten Tatlow

China presents the United States and its partners with the most serious set of challenges they have faced since the Cold War. To manage this challenge, transatlantic nations need a blueprint to build a common approach.

China Europe & Eurasia

In the News

Mar 17, 2021

Brzezinski quoted in Defense News: Ukraine should look to US for air defenses, improved air force, says former defense adviser

By Ian Brzezinski

Ian Brzezinski was quoted in Defense News on the importance of expanding American military exercises in Ukraine, and the need for the United States to provide more for military assistance to Ukraine.

European Union NATO

Experts

Events