In mid-October, the defense ministers of the NATO member states met for the first time under the leadership of the new Secretary General Mark Rutte. For the Tagesspiegel, Dr. Ulrich Kühn outlines Rutte’s plans and the challenges facing the Secretary General and the defense alliance. According to the Hamburg peace researcher, the outcome of the US elections will also be pivotal for NATO. However, regardless of the election result, it is already clear that the US cannot concentrate on several crisis and conflict regions at the same time.
Therefore, there will be two main priorities for NATO in the near future: On the one hand, it is important to continue providing military support to Ukraine in its defense against Russia. On the other hand, Secretary General Rutte will need to persuade the European NATO members to continuously increase their defense spending, Kühn explained.
The article “Nato mit neuem Generalsekretär. Wohin lenkt Rutte die Verteidigungsallianz?” was published on tagesspiegel.de on 17.10.2024 and is available here.
©IFSH/ Felix Matthies
