August 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was founded in 1949 as a peacetime military alliance to provide collective security. At last month’s NATO summit in Washington, D.C., U.S. President Joe Biden hailed the alliance as the greatest “in the history of the world” and a “bulwark of global security.” Indeed, one could argue that NATO has found new purpose since Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022: The number of member nations who are meeting their defense spending pledge has increased significantly, two important new members, Finland and Sweden, have brought the total number of nations in the alliance to 32, and a new Secretary General, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, will take the helm in October. In this episode of the HCA Podcast, Anja Schüler takes a look at the past and the future of NATO with Seth Johnston from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.