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

German soldiers training for mission in Kosovo, Jan. 28, 2014

NATOSource

Feb 19, 2015

German Soldiers Used Broomsticks Instead of Guns During NATO Exercise

By Telegraph, Washington Post, and the Local (Germany)

From Justin Huggler, Telegraph:  German soldiers used broomsticks painted black instead of guns during a joint Nato exercise last year due to severe equipment shortages, it has emerged.

Germany NATO
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and British Prime Minister David Cameron, Sept. 4, 2014

NATOSource

Feb 17, 2015

David Cameron Will Encourage Britain’s Enemies If He Cuts Defense Spending, Warn Former NATO Chiefs

By Ben Riley-Smith, Telegraph

David Cameron will embolden Vladimir Putin and Islamic terrorists if he reneges on a commitment to spend two per cent of GDP on defence, two former Nato heads have warned.

NATO Russia

In the News

Feb 15, 2015

Benitez on the Future of NATO

By Jorge Benitez

Defense News quotes NATOSource Director and Brent Scowcroft Center Senior Fellow Jorge Benitez on new programs between Washington and its NATO partners:

NATO Security & Defense
The leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine, Feb. 11, 2015

NATOSource

Feb 14, 2015

Stephen Walt Makes the Case for Appeasing Russia

By Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy

Those who favor arming Ukraine are also applying “deterrence model” remedies to what is almost certainly a “spiral model” situation.

NATO Russia
US Ambassador to NATO Douglas E. Lute

NATOSource

Feb 13, 2015

US Ambassador Applauds Changes in NATO Force Structure

By Douglas Lute, US Mission to NATO

[T]he force posture that NATO has had for the last 20 years or so when it went on operations, extended operations in the Balkans and in Afghanistan, was not best suited for these demands that we now face on our periphery.

NATO Security & Defense
Ukrainian armored unit, Jan, 3, 2015

NATOSource

Feb 12, 2015

Mearsheimer: Don’t Arm Ukraine

By John J. Mearsheimer, New York Times

Sending weapons to Ukraine will not rescue its army and will instead lead to an escalation in the fighting. Such a step is especially dangerous because Russia has thousands of nuclear weapons and is seeking to defend a vital strategic interest.

Germany NATO
Ash Carter testifying to Senate Armed Services Committee, Feb. 4, 2015

NATOSource

Feb 12, 2015

Ash Carter’s Priorities for NATO

By John T. Bennett and Paul McLeary, Defense News

The United States and NATO should reject Russian assertions that Moscow is entitled to a “sphere of influence” in Eastern Europe — and build militaries capable of handling “any opponent,” said the nominee to be the next US defense secretary.

NATO Russia
Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama, Jan. 16, 2015

NATOSource

Feb 11, 2015

Obama to Cameron: Maintain UK Defense Spending or Weaken NATO

By Ben Farmer, Telegraph

Barack Obama has told David Cameron that Britain must stick to its Nato spending target, or set a damaging example to its European allies.

NATO Security & Defense

Article

Feb 11, 2015

Rearticulating NATO’s Strategy Toward Georgia

By Mariam Tirkia

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s remark that the NATO summit in Chicago in 2012 should be “the last summit that is not an enlargement [one]” raised expectations in Georgia that were already quite high. Georgia is seeking the elusive Membership Action Plan (MAP), which is NATO’s program of advice, assistance, and practical support tailored to the individual […]

NATO Russia
Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, Oct. 17, 2012

NATOSource

Feb 10, 2015

Putin Security Aide Warns US Over Arms For Ukraine

By Kathrin Hille, Financial Times

A key security adviser to Russian president Vladimir Putin has accused the US of seeking to drag Russia directly into war in Ukraine through a possible plan to arm Kiev, underlining the seriousness with which Moscow would greet such a move.

NATO Nuclear Nonproliferation

Experts

Events