The past and future of NATO

Stephan Kieninger is a Non-Resident Fellow at the American-German Institute. He was previously a Wilson Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a postdoc at Johns Hopkins SAIS, 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 US 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 Senior 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. Previously, Nuland served in numerous senior positions at the Department of State in the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations. 

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.