At their summit meeting in Washington D.C. in July 2024, NATO Heads of State and Government will commemorate the Alliance’s 75th anniversary and chart its path forward at a critical time for Euro-Atlantic security and international peace and stability. The Alliance leaders will reaffirm NATO’s essential and enduring purpose of safeguarding the freedom and security of all its members by political and military means and the enduring transatlantic bond. And they will declare their mutual commitment to defend their people, territory, and liberty, founded on democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

The publication NATO@75 – Keeping Calm and Being Ready for Challenges Ahead is the result of a fruitful cooperation between the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies (GCMC) and Doctrine and Training Centre of the Polish Armed Forces (DTC). The GCMC Alumni Scholar Group research project titled NATO After Vilnius – The Way Ahead started out as a discussion during the Seminar on Regional Security held at the GCMC in the spring of 2023, when a group of participants expressed their interest in conducting academic work on NATO issues.

With the generous support of the GCMC’s Alumni Programs Office, and in close cooperation with DTC, the Alumni Scholar Group research project was established with the aim of analyzing the outcomes of the NATO Summit held in Vilnius in July, 2023, identifying the most promising pathways towards their full implementation at the speed of relevance, and addressing the mitigation of potential shortcomings while the Alliance is faced with an extraordinarily volatile and demanding security environment as it is approaching its 75th anniversary.

The research project brought together four Alumni Scholars from Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania and three members of the GCMC’s faculty from Poland, Slovenia and the United States. Their research addresses a broad range of questions of particular importance to Euro-Atlantic security and defense. It covers the further strengthening of NATO’s deterrence and defense posture at the Northeastern flank; security in the Black Sea region in the context of Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine; Ukraine‘s path towards NATO membership; NATO and the Indo-Pacific; the state of the defense industrial base in NATO countries; the Alliance’s ability and readiness for strategic adaptation and transformation; and NATO’s nuclear policy and posture in an ever changing security environment.

A workshop of the Alumni Scholar Group research project was held on November 27, 2023 at the Central Military Library in Warsaw, Poland. Organized by the GCMC’s Alumni Programs Office and hosted by DTC, the event took place back to back with DTC’s GlobState Conference 2023. The workshop brought together the participants with the Director and Deputy Director of DTC; the Commander of the NATO Force Integration Unit Poland; and experts from NATO Headquarters, the NATO Defence College, Germany, and GCMC faculty to discuss the topics and outlines of the respective research projects.

The NATO Alumni Scholar Group presented the results of their research projects to an audience of NATO and national experts at the main conference held by the GCMC, in cooperation with and attended by DTC, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on March 3-5, 2024. As part of the GCMC’s podcast series on NATO@75, the four Alumni Scholars were interviewed by the podcast hosts, Professor Fritz Rademacher and Rear Admiral Piotr Nieć, on March 4, 2024. The publication presenting the research finding of the project members is co-edited by Professor Fritz Rademacher, Major General Miha Škerbinc, and Rear Admiral Piotr Nieć on the part of the GCMC, and Colonel Dr. Andrzej Lis on part of DTC.

The GCMC Alumni Scholar Group research project and its publication would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of many. We would like to thank in particular Chris Burelli and Donna Janca from the Alumni Programs Office, and colleagues from various branches of the GCMC for their continuous support, sage advice, and tireless efforts which made the project possible. Our thanks also to DTC Deputy Director Colonel Dr. Robert Reczkowski, Chief Specialist, Navy Capt. (Ret.) Jarosław Hewelt, Aneta Wilewska, and the staff of Doctrine and Training Centre of the Polish Armed Forces who shouldered the burden of publishing the results of the project. The Alumni Scholars and contributing GCMC faculty members benefitted greatly from the expert advice and support of a group of dedicated practitioners and scholars, including Ruben-Erik Diaz-Plaja, Ambassador Martin Erdmann, Yevgeniya Gaber, Karl-Heinz Kamp, Julien Kita, Liviu Lazar, James Lee, and Dominik Jankowski.

We hope that this publication will contribute to the wider debate on the future of the Atlantic Alliance as it finds itself at yet another inflection point in its history.

The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, a German-American partnership, is committed to creating and enhancing worldwide networks to address global and regional security challenges. The Marshall Center offers fifteen resident programs designed to promote peaceful, whole of government approaches to address today’s most pressing security challenges. Since its creation in 1992, the Marshall Center’s alumni network has grown to include over 14,400 professionals from 156 countries. More information on the Marshall Center can be found online at www.marshallcenter.org.

This publication reflects the views of the authors and is not necessarily the official policy of the United States, Germany, or any other governments.