NATO: Weathering the Storms

The Warsaw Summit of NATO heads of state this past weekend affirmed the strategic and ideological importance of the U.S. to the alliance and vice versa. NATO provides security to the European continent. “Europe being secure makes the U.S. more secure because we can do more things in more places to deal with threats before they come to our own borders,” says Jeffrey Rathke, Deputy Director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). This security allows the U.S. to focus on other global issues directly affecting U.S. vital interests both with NATO allies, like in the anti-ISIS coalition, and without NATO partners in other regions of the world.

For example, the U.S. and NATO allies are working together in Afghanistan to thwart terrorism and deal with instability leading to migration. At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on July 7, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the committee, said, “A strong NATO is in America’s national security. Nowhere has that been made more clear than in Afghanistan where our allies have sacrificed blood and treasure fighting alongside us for 15 years, and our shared mission is not over yet.”