Jamie Shea is an associate fellow in the International Security Department at Chatham House and a professor of strategy and security at the University of Exeter. He was a NATO official for nearly four decades.
Two centuries ago, the Battle of Waterloo was more than just an allied victory over Napoleon’s French army—it marked the start of almost fifty years of peace in Europe.
The next years will see most, if not all, of NATO's major military operations draw down as the Alliance finds itself, for the first time in twenty years, without a major operation to run.
A slimmed down NATO could do a better job of harmonizing transatlantic positions in crisis situations, be the hub of multinational, high-end military operations, and develop expertise and capabilities to deal with new threats such as cyber attacks.
The Obama administration recently concluded a two-day Nuclear Security Summit, which saw world leaders endorse the U.S.-led initiative to secure all nuclear weapons from terrorists’ grasp in the next four years. A number of pressing and controversial issues still remain on the global nuclear agenda, however.
At a lunch debate co-hosted with the NATO Public Diplomacy Division, Jamie Shea and Ashley J. Tellis discussed new, emerging security risks and provided an outlook on how and if NATO should respond.