ELN network members assess whether the Ankara summit marks a turning point for Europe’s role within NATO or a transition shaped by the US. They discuss defence spending, strategic autonomy, and the choices European governments must make to bolster the alliance in an uncertain security environment.
On the eve of the United States of America’s 250th anniversary, ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El is joined in conversation with Laurel Rapp, Director of the US and North America Programme at Chatham House, to discuss the US experiment and how recent developments across Greenland, Venezuela and Iran – as well as domestically – have altered global perceptions of the US.
With the United States reducing its strategic role in Europe, NATO is entering a new era of European leadership. ELN Executive Director Robert Ondrejcsák argues that Europe’s priority should be strengthening alliance capabilities rather than creating parallel structures, while examining how rising defence spending, shifting military power within the continent, and new security partnerships will shape NATO’s long-term “Europeanisation”.
What are the consequences stemming from the seeming end of NATO’s global role? ELN Senior Associate Fellow Nicholas Williams looks back at two decades of NATO’s “out-of-area operations”, arguing that foreign crisis management missions have become strategic liabilities rather than assets, exposing European troops to global conflicts while doing little to enhance European security.
When NATO leaders meet in Ankara in July, they will do so against the backdrop of a strategic environment unlike any since the end of the Cold War. As Tacan Ilden writes, the alliance’s future effectiveness will depend not only on military strength but also on its ability to preserve political unity among allies whose threat perceptions and domestic political dynamics are increasingly divergent.
Ahead of the July NATO Summit in Ankara, Ahmet Üzümcü, former Permanent Representative of Turkey to NATO, reflects on the alliance’s transformation from 16 to 32 members and the challenges shaping its future. From burden-sharing and European defence to nuclear deterrence, Ukraine, China, and transatlantic tensions, he argues that NATO’s continued success will depend on unity, credible deterrence, and meaningful political consultation among allies.