Nikolas K. Gvosdev
his July, leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will convene in Washington for a historic 75th anniversary summit—to take stock of the alliance’s work and to chart out its future. The decisions taken at this meeting will set the pace for the next chapter of the Euro-Atlantic partnership.
The agenda at this conclave will grapple with a set of issues that two contributors to Orbis—Ian Brzezinski and Elbridge Colby—discussed and debated in its pages four and a half years ago. In wake of the restart of major combat operations in Ukraine by the Russian Federation—precipitating the largest and deadliest period of fighting in Europe since the end of the Second World War—and the emergence of China as a major power with global reach—the points they raised still remain the principal questions that the alliance must settle as it looks to reinvent and reinvigorate itself for the mid-21st century.
These include:
- How to properly weigh and address the challenges posed by Russia and China. How much focus should be devoted to checking Moscow’s ambitions given that Russia is the current problem? How much must be set aside today as a reserve for dealing with a future China contingency?
- What is the nature of the Russia-China strategic entente? While all agree it is not a formal alliance, it is more than just a marriage of tactical convenience? Does it represent a level of strategic intimacy where an advantage (or setback) to one in one theater has repercussions for the plans of the other in another theater of operations? Is there a point where the national interests of Russia and China would diverge?
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