Publication

Ahead of the 2016 NATO Summit in Warsaw, the author of this paper warns against allowing a 'going back to basics' approach - that some in NATO are advocating as a response to Russia's incursion into Crimea and Ukraine - to frame the narrative of the 2016 Summit discussions. She argues that the 'back to basics' approach is dangerous as it emphasizes one aspect of the changing security environment that NATO faces while neglecting others. She goes further to say that moving away from NATO's other goals of cooperative security and crisis management 'back to basics' will render the Alliance irrelevant in the long run. What NATO needs to focus on instead, she argues, is a new transatlantic bargain in which the US continues to make its contribution, but also requires European NATO states to play more of a role in addressing security challenges in their region.