Book talk stirs debate about NATO’s search for a vision
On 2 June, the Alliance hosted a talk on the book “NATO in Search of a Vision”, edited by Dr Gülnur Aybet and Dr Rebecca R. Moore. According to Dr Aybet, the publication looks at the Alliance as it enters its seventh decade, finding itself in the midst of a transition process from a mainly value-based organization of “being” to a mainly mission-driven organization of “doing”.
Giving the talk was Dr Aybet, Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Kent, UK, and Dr Jamie Shea, Director of Policy Planning, Private Office of the NATO Secretary General.
In introducing Dr Aybet and the book, Dr Shea referred to the publication as a “useful reality check” that looks at current issues but also “attempts to answer the fundamental question of what makes NATO tick.”
For her part, Dr Aybet said the publication was an “issues-based book”. Despite a general decline in recent years of books published on NATO, she felt that there was actually more to write about now, and a need for NATO to articulate a grand strategic vision in its own right.
The book comes at a time when the Alliance is developing a new Strategic Concept, presenting, according to the author, an opportunity to shape a new transatlantic vision anchored in the enduring foundation of democratic core values and equipping the Alliance to anticipate and address today’s increasingly global and less predictable threats.
“NATO in Search of a Vision” brings together the views of scholars and policy experts from both sides of the Atlantic to examine the key issues that NATO must address in formulating a new strategic vision. It offers both a thoughtful assessment of NATO’s recent evolution and an analysis of where the Alliance should go if it is to remain relevant in the 21st century.