Bookshelf: NATO on Stoltenberg’s watch

Jens Stoltenberg was secretary general of NATO during a particularly turbulent decade, 2014 to 2024. During his tenure, European unity was shaken by Brexit, the alliance’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s frontal attack on Ukraine, Turkish and Hungarian opposition to Finnish and Swedish efforts to join NATO, and exacerbation of global tensions by increasingly militaristic China. As if these challenges were not enough, in 2018 president Donald Trump threatened to withdraw the US from the alliance, which would have undermined its very existence.

Stoltenberg’s term as head of the alliance was the second longest, attesting to members’ confidence in his leadership. He was due to step down in 2022 but, following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, his tenure was extended twice, finally to late 2024. Before steering NATO, Stoltenberg had served as prime minister of Norway and in other ministerial positions; now he’s back in Norway as finance minister.

In his newly published memoir, On my watch, Stoltenberg provides a candid account of his struggles to address global security challenges and keep NATO relevant. By any standards, the book is remarkably frank. And, unsurprisingly, it centres around two issues: Russia’s war on Ukraine, and Stoltenberg’s efforts to keep Trump, during his first term, from pulling the US from the alliance.

At the outset of his term, when Russia’s aggression against Ukraine was in its early stages, Stoltenberg tried to get NATO members to help Ukraine, and from the outset he encountered resistance. Even after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, key NATO members were wary of escalating the conflict, and allies struggled to provide Ukraine with offensive weapons, including tanks, fighters and long-range missiles.