Revitalize NATO's Grand Strategy

NATO needs “a grand strategy” that draws on “all the tools at its disposal—economic, political, diplomatic as well as military” to counter emerging security threats, NATO’s deputy supreme allied commander, General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, told the BBC months before he stepped down from his role in 2017.1 Three years later, the problem has gotten worse as a global pandemic challenges nearly every aspect of our societies, Russia has become even more belligerent, and China has emerged as a competitor in a number of areas. Allies still lack, but badly need, a grand strategy to address current and emerging challenges together. While all allies acknowledge this gap in theory, they see the development of a collective grand strategy as politically risky in practice.

Key Takeaways:

0:00 Intro

2:23 Timo explains what NATO is doing now that does not qualify as a grand strategy to counter emerging security threats

3:59 Timo also explains why their recommendation qualify as a blueprint for a grand strategy and if some of other recommendations chime with theirs

4:40 Ivanka also talks about the purpose of the recommendation that they wrote with Timo and the importance it would have on countering the emerging security threats

6:51 Timo talks about if the secretary general would update the strategic concept and also talks about why it’s time to update it

9:25 Ivanka also explains how Wargaming and some of the other methods that she’s talking about help NATO come to decisions as allies are not confronting their political differences

12:35 Timo explains how the Alliance to get allies, big or small, to not think first about their own national interest and things that make reaching conclusions at NATO difficult

15:00 Timo and Ivanka talks about the importance of having an extra tool that helps in getting the right data to help in decision making in the Alliance

19:13 Timo talks about looking at things that have a pretty slow timeline that you can have the time to add this extra layer of analysis, negotiation and compromising

22:17 Timo explains how they would apply their recommendation and move military mobility as fast as it needs to be moved

23:57 Ivanka talks about ways in which they used Wargaming and the potential courses of action and outcomes that might produce and why NATO needs to be better at defining strategic objectives

26:13 Ivanka also talks about the objectives that NATO said it had in Ukraine that it achieved

27:58 Timo and Ivanka talks about if NATO integrates the information of Wargaming into policy planning since it has been using Wargaming for years and why NATO should compete with China on high seas, maritime chokepoints, the Arctic and cyberspace

33:34 Ivanka and Timo explain if the process in their recommendation will be adopted and adapted by the other NATO allies and why

35:46 Timo also explains why NATO doesn’t need to wait for a strategic concept to start using the kind of tools they are proposing

Shows Mentioned: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/nato20-2020/revitalize-natos-grand-strategy/

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/

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Quotes Mentioned: “With the enlargement of NATO, it has become more difficult to reach agreement on what that grand strategy should be about.” “NATO needs to use Wargaming to come to understanding and decision making about what its priorities are in terms of responses to all those new challenges that we see in the world around us.” “It's about time to update the strategic concept because some of the new challenges are lacking as some of the old challenges have changed.” “Many small allies lack the necessary capacity and capability to do strategic analysis.” “You need to be thinking about the long term.” “There’s no single theory.” “Military mobility in itself has a lot of facets.” “NATO is not always very clear about what its objectives are.” “Ungoverned spaces breed terrorism, proliferation of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction and migrants trafficking.”

Guests Social Media Links: Ivanka Barzashka: Website: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/ivanka-barzashka Email: ivanka.barzashka@kcl.ac.uk Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ibarzashka

Ambassador Timo Koster: Website: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/timo-s-koster/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tskos