This House Has No Confidence In Nato

Despite Emmanuel Macron labelling NATO ‘as becoming brain-dead’ in 2019, NATO membership has continued to expand, with the recent additions of North Macedonia and Montenegro. This expansion has coincided with a slow but steady demilitarisation of NATO. With very few member states spending the minimum of 2% of GDP on defence, and with recent crises in Eastern Europe, is the ability of NATO to defend itself and its principles in peril? Is NATO still fit for purpose?

Proposition

Professor Miles Yu

Historian and strategist. He has previously served as a Policy Advisor to the Trump administration on Chinese foreign affairs. He is a Professor of Military History at the US Naval Academy and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Dr Christian Emery

Academic and Lecturer in International Relations at UCL. He previously served as Director of the International Centre for Defence and Security.

Opposition

Mary Beth Long

Entrepreneur and former US Government offical. She previously served as Chair of NATO’S High Level Group and Assistant Secretary of Defence in the Bush administration.

Professor Kiron Skinner

Former Director of Policy Planning and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State during the Trump administration. She is the Taube Professor of International Relations and Politics at Carnegie Mellon University.

His Excellency Juri Luik

Estonian diplomat and politician. He is the current Permanent Representative of Estonia to NATO and the former Minister of Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia.