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

Norwegian Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide and Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Feb. 4, 2015

NATOSource

Mar 2, 2015

Norwegian Defense Minister: NATO Decision Making Process Too Slow To Deal with Emerging Crises

By Mick Krever, CNN

Western relations with Russia will never again be the same after the war in Ukraine, Norwegian Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.

NATO Northern Europe

Event Recap

Feb 27, 2015

Germany’s Future Role in Transatlantic Security: A Conversation with Vice Admiral Andreas Krause, Chief of the German Navy

By Brent Scowcroft Center

Over the past year, tensions between Russia and NATO over the war in Ukraine have extended past NATO’s south-eastern border up to its most vulnerable north-eastern partners. It is along this border that Russia has launched three surprise military exercises in the past year, incorporating land, air, and sea offensive elements in scenarios eerily resembling […]

Germany NATO
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK PM David Cameron, & President Barack Obama, June 25, 2009

NATOSource

Feb 27, 2015

NATO Defense Spending Promises Largely Ignored

By Sam Jones, Financial Times

Only two of Nato’s six biggest defence spenders — the US and France — will fulfil a pledge to protect military budgets made at the alliance’s summit five months ago.

France Germany
Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama, Sept. 4, 2014

NATOSource

Feb 26, 2015

Report: Six European Members of NATO Will Cut Defense Spending and Break Agreement Made at Wales Summit

By Denitsa Raynova & Ian Kearns, ELN

Preliminary reports from fourteen countries examined for fiscal year 2015 suggest that only one (Estonia) will spend 2% of GDP on defence.

Germany Hungary

In the News

Feb 26, 2015

Business Insider Cites the Atlantic Council

By Ian Brzezinski and Nicholas Varangis

Business Insider cites an Atlantic Council chart demonstrating the NATO-Russia exercise gap from a NATOSource article by the Scowcroft Center’s Ian Brzezinski and Nicholas Varangis:

NATO Russia
Chairman of the Bundestag defense committee Hans-Peter Bartels, Dec. 31, 2012

NATOSource

Feb 26, 2015

Political Leaders in Germany Question Readiness of the Bundeswehr

By Local (Germany)

The Bundeswehr (German army) is currently only 75 percent equipped with tanks and other heavy weapons, with equipment shared between different units as and when they need it under a so-called “Dynamic availability management” system.

Germany NATO

In the News

Feb 26, 2015

Aronsson on NATO’s Spending Inefficiencies

By Lisa Aronsson

Business Insider quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Visiting Fellow Lisa Aronsson on inefficiencies in NATO spending and what that means for the two percent spending target:

NATO Security & Defense

In the News

Feb 26, 2015

Aronsson on NATO’s Defense Spending

By Lisa Aronsson

International Business Times quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Visiting Fellow Lisa Aronsson on NATO’s defense spending and what it means for an increasingly hostile Europe:

NATO Security & Defense
General Philip Breedlove, Feb. 25, 2015

NATOSource

Feb 25, 2015

General Breedlove Asks Congress to Halt Reduction of US Forces in Europe

By Philip Breedlove, EUCOM

The cornerstone of EUCOM’s strategy is physical presence.

NATO Security & Defense
SACEUR Gen. Philip Breedlove, May 23, 2013

NATOSource

Feb 25, 2015

General Breedlove: US Depends on European Allies and Partners to ‘Fully Defend Our National Security Interests’

By Philip Breedlove, EUCOM

Our many shared values, interests, and economic interdependence with Europe provides unique opportunities and assets for collective security as well as global security cooperation.

Europe & Eurasia NATO

Experts

Events