NATO’s Past, Present, and Future: A View From Europe

NATO’s Past, Present, and Future: A View From Europe
Radoslaw Sikorski CCGA/file
NATO’s Past, Present, and Future: A View From Europe
Radoslaw Sikorski CCGA/file

NATO’s Past, Present, and Future: A View From Europe

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In this first program of the fall 2008 Chicago and the World Forum series, “Europe and the United States: Navigating the Future,” Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski addresses the future of the world’s strongest military alliance. As NATO looks toward its 60th anniversary in 2009, the organization is evolving to address myriad new issues confronting its members. With new missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo redefining NATO’s area of responsibility, it is essential that NATO modernize while remaining true to its core mission and maintaining vital military operations around the globe. But as national priorities shift and the clarity of the Cold War world is gone, new and unique questions arise: how can NATO reconcile the varying transatlantic approaches to pressing global issues? What is NATO’s role in shaping the strategic dialogue between Europe and the United States? How will the expansion of NATO affect relations with countries like Russia, and will expansion fundamentally change the nature of the alliance? Radoslaw Sikorski will address these and other key questions in exploring the European-United States relationship and the future of their military alliance.

His Excellency Radoslaw Sikorski has served as Poland’s minister of foreign affairs since 2007. Previously, he served as minister of defense and as Poland’s deputy minister for foreign affairs. In 1992, as deputy minister for defense in the first democratically elected government after the fall of communism, he spearheaded Poland’s successful drive to join NATO.

Recorded Monday, September 08, 2008 at InterContinental Hotel.