The future of NATO

NATO’s reflection process (NATO 2030), as well as the decision to revisit the Alliance’s Strategic Concept in 2022 pose two sets of questions: the first pertains to the organization’s adaptation to tomorrow’s security environment; the second is on whether there is agreement inside the Alliance on the kind of organization to be built, and what its principles and methods should look like.

This Policy Brief examines these two levels of questions to identify five possible directions in which the Alliance might move: continuity; refocusing on collective defence; morphing into a security organization; standing up to China; and marginalization.