Transatlantic leaders rate Greece as top candidate to be removed from NATO
In a just released Atlantic Council-Foreign Policy survey, experts voted Greece as the country they were most likely to “kick out of NATO.” Heads of state, ministers of defense and foreign affairs, a head of intelligence, plus current and former members of Congress were among the dozens of expert respondents from the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
As international leaders converge on Chicago this week for the NATO Summit, the Atlantic Council and Foreign Policy partnered to ask about the relevance and future of the world’s most powerful alliance. None of the respondents thought NATO should cease to exist or that the United States would be better off leaving the Alliance, but they were less certain that NATO can adapt to a changing geopolitical and military landscape—and just who will foot the bill for future operation.
Some key findings:
- More respondents think NATO should not intervene in Syria, with one stating, “Are you kidding? NATO does not have the resources: no will, limited skill, no tools.”
- Respondents are nearly split equally on the question of whether or not Al Qaeda will return to Afghanistan once the International Security Assistance Force mission ends.
- Most participants believe that the European members of NATO could not have conducted the Libya operation without US assistance.
- Almost all of the respondents feel NATO should have offensive cyber capabilities.
Read the entire survey results and see the full list of respondents at
Atlantic Council/Foreign Policy Survey: The Future of NATO
Does the 63-year-old Alliance still matter today? In advance of the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago, The Atlantic Council and Foreign Policy asked politicians, scholars, and other observers from both sides of the Atlantic to weigh in.
Heads of state, ministers of defense and foreign affairs, intelligence officers, and current and former members of Congress were among the respondents who answered our call. While none of them thought NATO should cease to exist or that the United States would be better off leaving the Alliance, they were less certain about whether NATO can adapt to a changing geopolitical and military landscape -- and just who will foot the bill for future operation.
They rated Greece, currently struggling to repay its crushing debt load, the top candidate to be kicked out of the Alliance, exhibited deep divides on how to handle a troubled relationship with Russia, predicted that NATO would be unable to pull off another Libya-style intervention three years from now, and overwhelmingly viewed the Afghan mission as a failure.
Participants (59): David Aaron, David Abrahams, Rafael Bardaji, Hans Binnendijk, Dirk Brengelmann, Yves Brodeur, Ian Brzezinski, Frances Burwell, Christopher Chivvis, W. Eugene Cobble, Heather Conley, Marios Efthymiopoulos, Charles Freeman, Karsten Friis, Jeremy Ghez, Ana Maria Gomes, James Goldgeier, Ulrike Guerot, Jason Healey, P. Terrence Hopmann, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, James Joyner, Rasa Jukneviciene, Karl Kaiser, Lawrence Kaplan, Sarwar Kashmeri, Sean Kay, Daniel Keohane, Jim Kolbe, Aleksander Kwasniewśki, Iurie Leanca, Henrik Lilijegren, Julian Lindley-French, Richard Lugar, Jüri Luik, George Maior, Tomas Malmlöf, Sally McNamara, Alessandro Minuto Rizzo, Clara Marina O’Donnell, Ioan Mircea Pascu, Shuja Nawaz, Boyko Noev, Barry Pavel, J. Peter Pham, Tomas Ries, Matthew Rojansky, Stephen Saideman, Kori Schake, Daniel Serwer, Stanley R. Sloan, John Tanner, Jan Techau, Kenneth Weisbrode, Damon Wilson, Boguslaw Winid, Jörg Wolf, Dov Zakheim, Michael Zilmer-Johns.
