US announces NATO 3.0: Balanced, credible and force-based

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has entered a new stage: NATO 3.0. This was announced by U.S. Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby at the body's Defense Ministerial Meeting.

During the conversation, Colby detailed that the United States is living through a period of profound strategic change that requires lucid realism and fundamental adaptation by all.

"The world that shaped the habits, assumptions, and force posture of NATO during the so-called "unipolar moment" following the Cold War no longer exists. Power politics has returned, and military force is again being employed at a large scale," he stressed.

In this regard, the undersecretary explained that the United States is prioritizing the most important threats to its interests, especially the defense of its territory and its interests in the Western Hemisphere, in addition to strengthening deterrence through denial in the Western Pacific.

"At the same time - and critically - the United States and its allies must be prepared for the possibility that potential opponents will act simultaneously across multiple theaters, whether in a coordinated fashion or opportunistically," he stressed.

Colby noted that times have changed, and it is prudent to adapt to them. "This is not an abandonment of NATO. To the contrary, it is a return to and validation of its foundational purpose," he assured.

"The Alliance was created in the late 1940s to provide a strong, credible, and equitable defense of the North Atlantic area. Throughout the Cold War, ‘NATO 1.0’ as we might describe it, was defined by a hard-nosed, realistic, clear-eyed approach to deterrence and defense," he specified.

Under that vision, he stressed that the current world situation calls for a "NATO 3.0", something much closer to "NATO 1.0" than the approach of the last thirty-five years. A strategy that, in his view, is based not only on force but also on diplomacy.

"This NATO 3.0 requires much greater efforts by our allies to step up and assume primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe. Nor, I should stress, does it necessitate a one-sided focus on military strength alone," said Colby.

He further noted that thanks to President Trump and the Allies, the Alliance took historic and momentous steps in 2025 to chart a new course in line with this necessary change:

"With the Hague Summit commitments, there is now a shared recognition that the approach typified by NATO 2.0, in which the United States provided the overwhelming share of high-end military power for Europe's defense while European allies on the whole spent relatively little on defense, was no longer sustainable."

Similarly, he explained that under President Trump's leadership, the United States is reordering the nation's defense priorities and the protection of U.S. interests in the hemisphere. We firmly face the fact that the Indo-Pacific is now a central geopolitical theater, with fundamental implications for U.S. security, economic vitality and technological leadership.

"It follows that Europe should field the preponderance of the forces required to deter and, if necessary, defeat conventional aggression in Europe," Colby stressed.

"For Europe, it means moving beyond inputs and intentions toward outputs and capabilities. Defense spending levels matter, and there is no substitute for it. But what matters at the end of the day is what those resources produce: ready forces, usable munitions, resilient logistics, and integrated command structures that work at scale under stress," he added.

He noted that the United States will continue to provide extended nuclear deterrence and also, in a more limited and focused way, conventional capabilities that contribute to NATO's defense. The Trump administration "will also continue to press, respectfully, but firmly and insistently, for a rebalancing of roles and responsibilities within the Alliance," he added. "That is not pressure for its own sake. It is pressure in service of a stronger, more credible NATO."