When the NATO heads of state and government convened in Wales in 2014 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, their meeting was widely heralded as historic; and yet it is likely that last week’s Warsaw NATO summit will be the more important one. This is because it is only now that NATO genuinely has returned to its roots as an alliance devoted to the collective defence of its member states.
NATO summits provide a regular drumbeat for the alliance’s policy work and defence preparations, which alternate between years of implementation and years of seeking consensus for the next summit’s decisions. When the …read more