NATO

From June 24 to 25, heads of state and government gathered at the NATO Summit in The Hague, where they agreed on a new commitment to spend 5 percent of gross domestic product on defense by 2035. Check out our commentary, analysis, and events covering the convening, courtesy of our experts.

TRACKING NATO SPENDING


Trackers and Data Visualizations

Jun 20, 2025

NATO Defense Spending Tracker

By
Kristen Taylor, Julia Salabert

The Transatlantic Security Initiative’s NATO defense spending tracker delves into data and figures to analyze current defense spending trends.

Europe & Eurasia
NATO

FEATURED READING

FEATURED EVENTS

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Programs and initiatives

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

New Atlanticist

Jun 8, 2012

Why NATO Is a Pacific Power

By Barry Pavel and Jeffrey Reynolds

European members of NATO view America’s pivot toward Asia anxiously, seeing it as the beginning of a U.S. withdrawal from Europe. They should not be concerned. Instead, European members should see America’s turn to the Asia-Pacific region for what it is: the most consequential opportunity to bolster the trans-Atlantic link since the attacks of September […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2012

Montenegro: Why We Must Keep the Door Open

By Julian Lindley-French

Graham Greene once wrote, “There is always one moment when the door opens and lets the future in.” Here in beautiful Budva the Adriatic laps gently on the beach below my balcony and then stretches away like a carpet of crushed opal with the sun leaping from shard to shard. I have just spent the […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2012

Anchoring the Alliance: A Path to Turkish Leadership in the Alliance

By R. Nicholas Burns Damon Wilson and Jeffrey Lightfoot

If NATO hopes to maintain a central role in shaping its strategic neighborhood, it will need Turkey to take on a position of leadership within the Alliance. Within the next decade, a Turkish Secretary General should lead the Alliance. But for that to happen Turkey will have to act like the responsible power it should […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jun 6, 2012

Anchoring the Alliance: A Stronger Germany

By R. Nicholas Burns Damon Wilson and Jeffrey Lightfoot

For NATO to succeed in the future, the Alliance needs a stronger Germany. One senior Alliance official labeled Germany a “lost nation” in its political and military leadership. Europe’s future relevance as a global strategic partner of the United States is contingent on Germany taking its full place as a much stronger political and military […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jun 4, 2012

New Militia Clashes Endanger Transition in Libya

By Karim Mezran

This morning’s clashes between members of the Tarhouna militia and the Zintani militia at Tripoli’s main airport demonstrate just how unstable Libya’s security situation really is.

Libya NATO

New Atlanticist

Jun 4, 2012

A Light in the Mire

By Julian Lindley-French

Edward Gibbon, in his masterly Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire wrote, “all that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.” Having just come back from a two day NATO meeting in the Eternal City one is beginning to see that in the fabric of the people and the place.

Europe & Eurasia NATO
Lieutenant General Ralph J. Jodice II, USAF at the Atlantic Council

Event Recap

Jun 4, 2012

Operation Unified Protector: The Libya Air Campaign Revisited

On June 4, the Atlantic Council hosted Lieutenant General Ralph Jodice, commander of air operations for Operation Unified Protector, the NATO campaign in Libya in 2011.

Libya NATO

New Atlanticist

Jun 1, 2012

NATO’s Many Challenges

By Joshua Foust

I had the privilege of attending the Young Atlanticist Summit, sponsored by The Atlantic Council, during the NATO Summit last week in Chicago. It was a fascinating experience, getting to hear NATO officials discuss their plans with an oftentimes skeptical crowd. NATO tried to sell the summit as a watershed moment for the alliance – […]

Afghanistan NATO

New Atlanticist

May 31, 2012

Ending Poland’s Absurd Exclusion From Visa Waiver Program

By James Joyner

Speaking today at the Wroclaw Global Forum, Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides declared that “the Obama Administration strongly supports expanding the Visa Waiver Program to include Poland” and that “legislation that could open the door to Poland’s participation in the program is possible by the end of this year.”

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

May 31, 2012

Mission Taliban

By Bharat Karnad

There are certain immutable laws of military history that repeated attempts at disproving them only end up confirming their veracity. One such law has to do with certain countries being simply intolerant of interventions by foreign powers. Vietnam and Afghanistan come readily to mind; they are the fabled “graveyards of empires”.

Afghanistan NATO

Experts