The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which just celebrated its 75 th anniversary, has
been called the world’s “most enduring and successful alliance.” It played a vital role in
preventing a major war between western democracies and Russia and paved the way for the
peaceful end to the Cold War. More recently its members united to support non-member Ukraine
after the Russian invasion.
But after three-quarters of a century, is there a need for change in the Alliance
relationship with its leading member, the United States?
Donald Trump has said he would abandon NATO. But would he really do that if
reelected? And what would a Kamala Harris administration do? Are changes needed in the
relationship no matter who’s elected President?
We’ve invited two scholar-experts who closely monitor U.S.-NATO relations to answer
these questions and more. John Michael Weaver is an Associated Professor of Intelligence
Analysis at York (PA) College and the author of NATO in Contemporary Times: Purpose,
Relevance, Future (2021) and other works on cybersecurity and intelligence. Daniel Kochis is a
senior fellow with the Hudson institute. Previously, he was a Margaret Thatcher fellow at the
Heritage Foundation, where he was lead Europe analyst and wrote the Europe chapter of
Heritage’s Index of U.S. Military Strength.
This should be a lively discussion.

John Weaver teaches courses on intelligence analysis at York College in Pennsylvania.
He is a retired DOD civilian from the U.S. Intelligence Community and has served as an officer
in the U.S. Army, retiring at the rank of lieutenant colonel. He has trained and certified
multinational NATO reconnaissance teams based in The Netherlands, Germany and Spain for
worldwide deployment in full spectrum mission sets. He personally led several reconnaissance
missions throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia, including multiple missions in
Afghanistan.
Prof. Weaver graduated from NATO's Combined Joint Operations Center course in
Oberammergau Germany, the Air Command and Staff College, and the Joint & Combined
Warfighting School.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in business management from Towson University in 1990
and was graduated from Central Michigan University with a Master of Science in Administration
degree in 1995. He also earned a Master of Operational Arts and Science degree from the U.S.
Air Force's Air University in 2004, and was graduated from the University of Baltimore with a
Doctorate in Public Administration in 2013. Among his books are National Security Through
the Lens of the ‘Five Eyes’ Nations (2024).
Daniel Kochis is a senior fellow at the Center on Europe and Eurasia a Hudson Institute.
He specialized in transatlantic security issues and regularly publishes on United States policy in
Europe; NATO, Baltic, and Nordic dimensions of collective defense; and Artic issues.
Prior to joining Hudson, Mr. Kochis spent 11 years with the Heritage Foundation’s
Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, most recently as a research fellow in European affairs.
There, he served as a lead Europe analyst, authoring hundreds of publications and for a decade
writing the Europe chapter of Heritage’s Index of U.S. Military Strength.
Mr. Kochis holds an M.A. in comparative political science from Fordham University,
where he received the Richard A. Bennett graduate assistantship. He received his B.A. in
political science from the Catholic University of America, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa,
magna cum laude, and from the University Honors Program.

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