The past and future of NATO

Stephan Kieninger is a nonresident fellow at the American-German Institute. He was previously a Wilson Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies, a fellow at the Berlin Center for Cold War Studies, and a senior researcher at the Federal German Archives. He is the author of three books on U.S. foreign policy and European security in the Cold War and after, most recently Securing Peace in Europe. Strobe Talbott, NATO, and Russia after the Cold War (Columbia University Press, 2025). He has received fellowships from the German Historical Institute, the Hoover Institution, and the German Academic Exchange Service. He holds a PhD in modern history from Mannheim University.

Victoria Nuland is a aenior advisor in the public policy practice at Covington & Burling LLP. She is also the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor in the Practice of International Diplomacy at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She is a retired career ambassador in the U.S. diplomatic service, with 35 years of experience in foreign policy and international strategy, negotiation, media, and management at the Department of State and the White House. Nuland served six U.S. presidents and 10 secretaries of state of both political parties. During Joe Biden’s presidency, she served as undersecretary of state for political affairs and acting deputy secretary of state. Nuland previously held senior positions at the Department of State in the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations. She holds a BA from Brown University.

Stephen Sestanovich is the George F. Kennan senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis professor emeritus at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He is also the author of Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama (2014). From 1997 to 2001, Sestanovich was the U.S. State Department’s ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union. His previous government roles include serving as senior director for policy development at the National Security Council, as a member of the State Department’s policy planning staff, and as legislative assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He comments frequently on international issues for radio and television and has written for a wide variety of publications. Sestanovich holds a BA from Cornell University and a PhD from Harvard University.

Eric Edelman, a Miller Center practitioner senior fellow, retired as a career minister from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2009 after having served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House. As the undersecretary of defense for policy (2005–2009), he oversaw strategy development as the Defense Department’s senior policy official with global responsibility for bilateral defense relations, war plans, special operations forces, homeland defense, missile defense, nuclear weapons and arms control policies, counter-proliferation, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, arms sales, and defense trade controls. Edelman served as U.S. ambassador to the Republics of Finland and Turkey in the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and was principal deputy assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for national security affairs.