A reborn Alliance in a troubled world? NATO after Wales

When planned in 2013, the NATO Wales Summit was expected to focus on the post-Afghanistan NATO: less active in deploying forces and more focused on training and exercises. It turned out to be very different. In 2014 the turmoil in Kiev, followed by the Russian  annexation of Crimea and the fighting in Eastern Ukraine, changed the agenda completely. On top of that, the Islamic State shook the world by its cruel and violent actions, further deepening the Syria crisis and destabilizing Iraq and the wider Middle East, with consequences for the inner cities of many NATO members. Suddenly, the Wales meeting of Allied Heads of State and Government became the most important NATO Summit in history or, at least, since the end of the Cold War. Perhaps the media overreacted — as often is the case — but more than two months before the meeting NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen had already labeled the Summit as “historic”.