AI Summary
5 min readWhen Julianne Smith arrived as US ambassador to NATO in 2021, she sat quietly through her first few North Atlantic Council meetings, letting other ambassadors speak first. Within days, several allies pulled her aside with a blunt message: You are the US ambassador. You should speak first. We want to hear what you have to say, and then we’ll go from there. That small moment captures something essential about the alliance’s operating logic—and why its future is now in question.
Smith, who served as ambassador from 2021 to 2024, spoke with Gideon Rachman at the Aspen Security Forum about whether NATO can survive without strong American leadership. Her answer is not a simple yes or no, but a careful tour through the alliance’s internal mechanics, its recent strains, and the deeper historical question of whether the post-1945 order was an exception or the new normal.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:23) **Trump's Current Thinking on NATO** - Ambassador Smith describes Trump's volatile but ultimately positive NATO summit.
- 2 (03:19) **The Risk of Politicized Troop Withdrawals** - Smith explains how Trump could selectively punish allies by reducing forces.
- 3 (04:56) **Could Putin Exploit a US Drawdown?** - Smith outlines two worrisome scenarios for Russian opportunism.
- 4 (07:09) **Trump's Evolving View of Ukraine** - The ambassador notes a positive shift in Trump's attitude toward Ukraine.
- 5 (09:29) **Why Allies Really Support Ukraine** - The rationale for backing Ukraine is driven by national security interests, not just sympathy.
- 6 (11:57) **Tensions with Ukraine Before and During the War** - Smith describes the difficult relationship between NATO and Zelensky.
- 7 (14:33) **The Intelligence Challenge** - Smith reveals how hard it was to persuade allies and Ukraine that Russia would invade.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Gideon talks to Julianne Smith, former US ambassador to Nato about the future of the alliance. There seems to be greater transatlantic agreement on Ukraine, but tensions remain over Europe’s stance on Donald Trump’s war on Iran. So can the alliance survive without the US at the helm? Clip: ANI News
Free links to read more on this topic:
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Nato opens its cheque books in bid to keep Trump engaged
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Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner.
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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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