Reality-Check

Submission Statement: CEPA Senior Fellow Edward Lucas looks at the upcoming NATO summit in Washington, DC, as an affair that is more about style rather than substance. As the alliance faces major geopolitical challenges from Russia but is not taking strong enough actions in response. While the summit will discuss increasing support for Ukraine and reorganizing NATO’s command structure, Edward argues this is too little, too late, as Russia is continuing aggressive hybrid warfare actions across Europe like sabotage, arson, and cyberattacks with little punishment from NATO. NATO leaders need to go beyond words and make Russia’s leaders fear real consequences; otherwise, the geopolitical risks will continue to increase, but the summit is unlikely to make that needed change.