June 20, 2025

NATO Summit Preview with Julianne Smith and Camille Grand

By: Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend, Julianne Smith and Camille Grand

Next week, on June 24th and 25th, NATO will hold its annual summit in the Hague. In the run-up to the event, expectations are low among allies. The ultimate goal is to navigate the Summit without major incident and walk away with unity still intact. At the top of the agenda is the historic new pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defense. However, not everything is in agreement going into Tuesday, with varying perspectives on Russia, and Allies anxiously awaiting the outcome of the U.S. posture review to see how a downsized U.S. presence in Europe takes shape.

To discuss expectations and potential outcomes for the NATO Summit, we’re pleased to welcome Julianne Smith and Camille Grand to the podcast.

Julianne Smith is the president of Clarion Strategies and the former U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO

Camille Grand is a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and the former Assistant Secretary General for Defense Investment at NATO

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