NATO’s Road to Madrid CSIS

In our final episode, NATO’s Road to Madrid comes full circle as Max sits down with original host Rachel Ellehuus, who is now helping steer U.S. NATO policy as the Secretary of Defense representative in Europe and the defense advisor for the U.S. Mission to NATO. After our prior two episodes reacted to the Madrid Summit outcomes, Max and Rachel take this opportunity to look ahead to the future of the alliance. How will NATO implement the level of ambition in the Strategic Concept? What does the accession of Sweden and Finland mean for the alliance's "open door" policy? What does it mean to be a global alliance? Max and Rachel answer all these questions and more.

In our second episode after NATO's historic summit, Max sits down with one of the key figures at Madrid, UK Permanent Representative to NATO David Quarrey. Ambassador Quarrey walks us through what it's like to participate in a NATO summit and breaks down the alliance's key decisions on Ukraine, Finland and Sweden, reinforcing the eastern flank, and the Strategic Concept.

After NATO’s summit at the end of June, the road to Madrid has reached its destination. To begin our analysis of the summit outcomes, Max sits down with Vice Admiral Hervé Bléjean, the Director-General of the European Union Military Staff. Vice Admiral Bléjean gives his view on the Madrid Summit and breaks down how NATO and the EU cooperate on everything from China to supporting Ukraine to procuring new military capabilities. 

In this episode, Pierre and Luis conduct two separate interviews with leading experts on Africa and Latin America. They discuss the key security dynamics in those regions, the differing strategic approaches taken by Russia and China there, and what role NATO and its members might play. In the first segment, Pierre interviews Elie Tenenbaum, director of the Security Studies Center at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI) and a top European expert on African security affairs. In the second, Luis discusses Latin America with Dr. Robert Evan Ellis, a research professor at the U.S. Army War College and a senior, non-resident associate at CSIS. This interview includes a short Spanish-language segment.

Max Bergmann, the new director of the CSIS Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program, is joined by one of the leading voices on the Hill focused on NATO and European security: Congressman Gerry Connolly. The congressman gives a congressional viewpoint on a range of topics, but especially the importance of democratic values and political cohesion for the future of the alliance. The congressman also explained his role as President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and his expectations for the forthcoming Madrid Summit.

In this episode of NATO's Road to Madrid, Pierre and Luis sit down with the brilliant Professor Michito Tsuruoka of the Keio University in Tokyo, one of the foremost experts on NATO in Asia. The three talk about everything from Japan’s critical role in the international response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine to the viability of an “Asian NATO”. Along the way, they discuss how China views the conflict in Ukraine, how NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners view the role of the alliance in their region, and the importance of European engagement in Asia.