Why the US built NATO: keep Russia out, America in, Germany down

Lord Ismay's phrase captures NATO's founding logic: keeping the Soviet Union out of Western Europe, retaining the US military commitment, and controlling German rearmament. Seventy years on, the challenges are internal and political.

NATO's first Secretary General, **Lord Ismay**, left behind a phrase still quoted today: the Alliance was created "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." It was no bar-room joke, however much it may sound like one. It summed up three security problems Europe had been carrying since **1945**, and which the Washington Treaty of **1949** sought to resolve once and for all.

## Containing the USSR and keeping Washington engaged

The first goal was military: to halt any Soviet expansion towards Western Europe. The second was political: to prevent the **United States** from retreating to its own hemisphere as it had after the First World War. NATO membership tied the American nuclear umbrella to the continent. The third was to stop **Germany** from rearming unchecked, by integrating it into a common military structure.

## Burden sharing and European defence

Since the **2014 Wales Summit**, the Alliance has faced the greatest challenges of its recent history. The first is the **United States**' commitment to European defence and the demand for fairer burden sharing. The second is the division among allies over NATO's goals and role. The third is the policy of flexible enlargement. The fourth is the debate over an autonomous European defence and its effects on **EU-NATO** relations. The fifth is the Alliance's role in the new global balance of power.

## An alliance redefining itself

NATO has survived by adapting to every geopolitical shift. Today's challenges are more political than strategic: the debate is less about whom Europe is defending against than about who pays, who decides, and how far the Alliance should reach. The answers to those questions will define its future.