The Renegade Within: NATO’s American Dilemma

As NATO convened for its 2025 summit in The Hague, its most pressing challenge did not come from Russia, but from a US president openly sceptical of the Alliance’s purpose. While the summit projected carefully engineered unity and endorsed an ambitious new defence-spending target, it failed to adopt meaningful collective action on Ukraine or to articulate a coherent strategy towards Russia. As the Alliance now struggles to translate these pledges into sustained policy implementation, NATO cannot simply endure Donald Trump’s second term. Rather, it must actively adapt by managing volatility without sacrificing cohesion or its core identity. This requires repackaging NATO’s value in terms that Trump accepts–cost-efficiency, primacy and strength–while asserting a more capable European role and preserving the foundational norms that have anchored the Alliance since 1949.