With Russia's territorial ambitions playing out to Europe's North and East, a volatile belt of countries just to Europe's South, and difficult internal negotiations with members at the heart of NATO, 2016 will be challenging year for the North Atlantic Alliance, as it tries to give itself a realistic future-oriented strategic concept at the Warsaw Summit in July 2016. In addition, the European Union has committed itself to launching its first integrated European Security Strategy since 2003 this year. Finally, key European countries such as Germany and the UK are in the process of revising their defense strategies with the publication of respective white papers. Does this mean Europe is poised to shoulder more of the security burden in the transatlantic community?
Douglas Alexander, newly appointed Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project and former UK Shadow Foreign Secretary and Dr. Kori Shake former Director for Defense Strategy and Requirements on the National Security Council and research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution will discuss these challenges in conversation with the Project's Executive Director, Cathryn Cluver.
Dr. Kori Shake,is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. During the 2008 presidential election, she was senior policy adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign, responsible for policy development and outreach in the areas of foreign and defense policy. From 2007 to 2008 she was the deputy director for policy planning in the state department. In addition to staff management, she worked on resourcing and organizational effectiveness issues, including a study of what it would take to “transform” the state department so as to enable integrated political, economic, and military strategies. During President Bush's first term, she was the director for Defense Strategy and Requirements on the National Security Council. She was responsible for interagency coordination for long-term defense planning and coalition maintenance issues. Projects Schake contributed to include conceptualizing and budgeting for continued transformation of defense practices; the most significant realignment of US military forces and bases around the world since 1950; creating NATO's Allied Command Transformation and the NATO Response Force; and recruiting and retaining coalition partners for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. She has held the Distinguished Chair of International Security Studies at West Point, and also served in the faculties of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs, and the National Defense University.
The Rt. Hon. Douglas Alexander is a Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He was Shadow Foreign Secretary for the Her Majesty’s Official Opposition in the U.K. from 2011-15. Currently, he serves as a Visiting Professor at King's College, London. In November 2015, Douglas was appointed senior advisor to Bono. In this capacity, he will be advising Bono on how best to secure investment to tackle global poverty, particularly in Africa. Alexander previously held numerous senior U.K. Ministerial positions (2001-10), including as Minister for Europe, as Secretary of State for International Development and U.K.'s Governor of the World Bank. In addition, Alexander coordinated the Labour Party’s 2001 general election campaign for then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.
