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Resetting NATO and European strategic autonomy

19 Dec 2019 - 05:55
Source: NATO Heads of State andor Government with ceremony for the 70th anniversary © NATO / Flickr

NATO’s 70th birthday party in London on 3-4 December left the impression of an Alliance in political disarray. It resembled not a brain-dead NATO à la Macron, but certainly an Alliance suffering from a serious illness. It looks like the patient will not recover very soon. Hope is instead vested in one of the few decisions taken at the London Leaders’ Meeting, to task a group of wise persons to reflect on the patient’s ailments and potential cures. The diagnosis is aimed at strengthening the political dimension of the Alliance.

The Group’s precise mandate and time schedule still have to be defined. Taking into account the US presidential elections in November 2020, it will most probably be tasked to provide its recommendations in the course of 2021. In the meantime the Alliance has to sail through stormy weather as the transatlantic tensions are unlikely to disappear by themselves.

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