Future NATO completes a trilogy of security and defence publications in RUSI’s Whitehall Paper series. The first – NATO and the North Atlantic: Revitalising Collective Defence (2017) – focuses on the renewed importance of the transatlantic bond from US, UK and Norwegian perspectives. The second – Security in Northern Europe: Deterrence, Defence and Dialogue (2018) – takes a broader view, analysing challenges confronting the 12 Northern Group countries, the US and Canada. Both papers were publicised through comprehensive outreach programmes and presented at seminars in 25 countries, with the objective of encouraging an informed and open debate on national policy and international relations with emphasis on the northern region. That debate served as input for this third Whitehall Paper.
Future NATO: Adapting to New Realities (2020) expands the view further, identifying key themes that the Alliance and its partners must examine and address to remain relevant in the decades to come. As NATO recently celebrated 70 years of ‘credible deterrence and collective defence’, this paper focuses on the features of the current security and defence landscape, and on what NATO members should do, individually and together, to strengthen the organisation in order to meet present and future challenges.
I would like to thank all the authors of this volume for their contributions. It has been a true pleasure working with such a distinguished group of experts. I am once again in debt to freelance editor Margaret S MacDonald for valuable editorial advice and to Professor Mats Berdal of King’s College London, Professor Peter Roberts of RUSI and Colonel (ret.) Per Erik Solli of Nord University for their support in the development of all three publications. I am also grateful to RUSI for another round of excellent cooperation, with special thanks to the Director of Publications, Dr Emma De Angelis.
John Andreas Olsen
March 2020