Description
NATO is currently engaged in a process of strategic reflection on its future: the NATO 2030 expert group report was published in November 2020 and the alliance is likely to adopt a new strategic concept in the new few years. The context for this is an environment defined by increasingly conflictual great power relations between the US (and the West more broadly) and China and Russia and a widening of the parameters of great power competition to include domains such as cyber, space and advanced technology. At the same time, other non-traditional challenges – such as climate change and migration – are likely to pose acute security problems for Europe and North America in coming decades. These challenges raise questions about what NATO is, what NATO is for, and the range of policy options open to NATO and its members. This panel will provide an opportunity for academic reflection on these dynamics and NATO’s response to them. Contributors will address a range of different issues within the broad NATO debate: Brexit, global Britain and NATO (Prof. Mark Webber), NATO, enlargement and Russia (Dr. Tracey German), NATO and the Balkans (Dr. Martin Smith), NATO and the space domain (Dr. Simon Smith) and NATO and the China challenge (Prof. Andrew Cottey).
