An ATA Webinar
One Year after the Adoption of NATO's New Strategic Concept
On 29 June 2022, NATO adopted its long-awaited New Strategic Concept. This outlines the Alliance’s view of the strategic environment, restates the Alliance’s purpose and principles, and describes its core tasks.
The previous Strategic Concept – adopted in 2010 – remained hopeful for the partnership with Russia and made no reference at all to China. In contrast, the current version describes the Russian Federation as the “most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security” and observes that the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values”.
But the Alliance’s core tasks remain; deterrence and defence; crisis prevention and management; and cooperative security.
The challenge for the Alliance is to fulfil those tasks in these changed circumstances and ensure – as stated in the document’s preface – that “our Alliance remains fit and resourced for the future”.
As Alliance leaders prepared to meet in Vilnius on 12 and 13 July 2023, the Atlantic Treaty Association held a webinar where Benedetta Berti, Head of Policy and Planning in the Office of the NATO Secretary General, discussed the 2022 Strategic Concept in the light of events in the year since its adoption.