Cautious Optimism in Washington: Brussels Sprouts and Friends from the Halls of the NATO Public Forum

This week we’re bringing you something a little different. At the NATO Public Forum in July, Brussels Sprouts roamed the halls of the Marriot Marquis hotel in DC interviewing Public Forum guests and attendees on the key issues that were being discussed both at the Forum, and next door at the historic 75th anniversary NATO Summit.

In this episode we’ve pulled together some of the snippets of these interviews, focused particularly on the overall mood of the Summit. We discuss what people think the successes of the Summit are and where it fell short of expectations, and ask them to share their thoughts about key issues the Summit failed to address. We’ll be discussing the current situation in Ukraine, what a bridge to membership for Ukraine might look like, reflections on past NATO enlargement, the role of NATO in supporting freedom and democracy, the European industrial defense base, burden sharing, NATO partnerships and much more.

In this episode, you will hear from:

Damon Wilson, president and CEO of the National Endowment for Democracy

Max Bergman, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program and the Stuart Center in Euro-Atlantic and Northern European Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Luke Coffey, senior fellow at Hudson Institute

Steve Flanagan, adjunct senior fellow at the RAND Corporation

Liana Fix, fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sophia Besch, senior fellow in the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Matt Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Dan Fried, former U.S. ambassador to Poland

and Mark Newton and Joanne Hamer from the UK Ministry of Defence.