Defense Priorities and Catholic University’s Center for the Study of Statesmanship (CSS) are delighted to invite you to “NATO at 70: Vital, Relevant, or Obsolete?,” a panel discussion on the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. As NATO celebrates its 70th birthday next week, the alliance faces renewed questions about its purpose, cohesion, and future. President Trump’s antipathy toward NATO is well-documented. Yet even friends of the alliance acknowledge that NATO’s capabilities and will are increasingly in question. Last week brought news that Germany, one of the wealthiest and most important NATO members, has chosen not to spend even a paltry 1.5% of GDP on defense in the years to come. Some members contribute even less. And when put to the test in combat in Afghanistan and Libya, NATO performed unevenly, at best.

Is NATO’s original purpose of keeping “the Soviets out, the Americans in, and the Germans down” still relevant, nearly thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall? What are America’s vital national interests in Europe? Does America’s current role in the alliance enhance or retard European collective security?

CSS and Defense Priorities have assembled a dynamic group of experts to discuss these issues immediately after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday:

Gil Barndollar is the Military Fellow-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship.

Ben Friedman is Policy Director for Defense Priorities.

COL (Ret.) Douglas MacGregor, USA, is a decorated combat veteran, the author of five books, and a frequent commentator on national security issues.

Thomas Wright, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution.

Moderator: Justin Logan is a Research Associate and the Director of Programs at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship.

The event will be held April 3, from 1 – 3 pm, in Ballroom A at the Reserve Officers Association of America, directly across the street from the Hart Senate Office Building. We hope you can join us.