Image credit: Melody Cook/CNAS

June 24, 2022

Brussels Sprouts Live: Setting the Stage for Madrid

By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend, Julianne Smith, Steven Erlanger and David E. Sanger

Over the past several months, the NATO alliance has faced a tremendous challenge in responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While allied cohesion has been consistently put to the test, NATO has largely retained a strong and united front, demonstrating its enduring value in an era of heightened instability on the European continent. Moreover, the war has brought significant change to NATO, demonstrated by the recent watershed decisions by Finland and Sweden to apply for membership in the alliance. US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith, Steven Erlanger, and David Sanger, join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend, on this special edition of Brussels Sprouts to discuss the priorities for the Alliance ahead of the 2022 Madrid Summit.

Ambassador Julianne Smith assumed her position as the U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO in November 2021. Prior to her current position, she served as a Senior Advisor to Secretary Blinken at the Department of State. Previously, she served as the Director of the Asia and Geopolitics Programs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. From 2014 –2018, she served as the Director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

Steven Erlanger is the Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in Europe for The New York Times, a position he assumed in 2017. He is based in Brussels. Mr. Erlanger was previously the bureau chief in London, from 2013 to 2017; in Paris, from 2008 to 2013; in Jerusalem, from 2004 to 2008; in Berlin, from 2001 to 2002; in Prague, from 1999 to 2001; in Moscow, from 1994 to 1996; and in Bangkok, Thailand, from 1988 to 1991.

David E. Sanger is a White House and national security correspondent, and a senior writer. In a 38-year reporting career for The New York Times, he has been on three teams that have won Pulitzer Prizes, most recently in 2017 for international reporting. His newest book, “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age,’’ and an HBO documentary by the same title, examine the emergence of cyberconflict and its role in changing the nature of global power.

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