Foreign Affairs · Oct 16, 2026

The Nuclear Deal That Could Save NATO

Former U.S. NATO ambassador Ivo Daalder argues that the scramble to shore up Europe's conventional defense risks overlooking the continent's greatest security weakness: nuclear deterrence. But he lays out a middle path between dependence and nuclearization that would extend France's and the United Kingdom's nuclear umbrella—a course, he argues, that could even repair the transatlantic alliance.