April 11, 2024

Looking Back at 75 Years of NATO

In this panel discussion, three experts discuss how NATO morphed into a global linchpin of instability and a failed vehicle of US power projection.

Katrina vanden Heuvel

On April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in Washington, DC. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the world’s largest military alliance, the American Committee for US-Russia Accord and The Nation’s publisher, Katrina vanden Heuvel, convened a panel with Kyoto University’s Neutrality Studies featuring three reputable thinkers on international relations: Jack Matlock, the last US ambassador to the Soviet Union; professor John Mearsheimer, one of the world’s preeminent realist thinkers; and Anatol Lieven,renowned journalist and senior fellow of the Quincy Institute.

An urgent message from the Editors

As the editors of The Nation, it’s not usually our role to fundraise. Today, however, we’re putting out a special appeal to our readers, because there are only hours left in 2025 and we’re still $20,000 away from our goal of $75,000. We need you to help close this gap. 

Your gift to The Nation directly supports the rigorous, confrontational, and truly independent journalism that our country desperately needs in these dark times.

2025 was a terrible year for press freedom in the United States. Trump launched personal attack after personal attack against journalists, newspapers, and broadcasters across the country, including multiple billion-dollar lawsuits. The White House even created a government website to name and shame outlets that report on the administration with anti-Trump bias—an exercise in pure intimidation.

The Nation will never give in to these threats and will never be silenced. In fact, we’re ramping up for a year of even more urgent and powerful dissent. 

With the 2026 elections on the horizon, and knowing Trump’s history of false claims of fraud when he loses, we’re going to be working overtime with writers like Elie Mystal, John Nichols, Joan Walsh, Jeet Heer, Kali Holloway, Katha Pollitt, and Chris Lehmann to cut through the right’s spin, lies, and cover-ups as the year develops.

If you donate before midnight, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar by a generous donor. We hope you’ll make our work possible with a donation. Please, don’t wait any longer.

In solidarity,

The Nation Editors

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to The Guardian. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers.

More from The Nation

Students in Khartoum hold up the Sudan flag during a protest on November 3, 2025, against atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher .

We Need to Pay Attention to What’s Going on in Sudan We Need to Pay Attention to What’s Going on in Sudan

The ongoing genocide has been largely overlooked by the international community.

Rebecca Gordon

Biden

Biden Biden

It’s all his fault!

OppArt / Rob Rogers

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani celebrates with Senator Bernie Sanders during an election rally with Sanders and US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at Forest Hills Stadium on October 26, 2025, in Queens, New York.

Zohran Mamdani on Welcoming Bernie Sanders for a “Bread and Roses” Inaugural Celebration Zohran Mamdani on Welcoming Bernie Sanders for a “Bread and Roses” Inaugural Celebration

In an exclusive interview with The Nation, the incoming democratic socialist mayor discusses making New York a “showcase of light” through the political darkness.

John Nichols

No One Asked You director Ruth Leitman and Lovering Health Center executive director Sandi Denoncour at the Portsmouth screening in October.

How a Community Rallied to Save My Abortion Film How a Community Rallied to Save My Abortion Film

When a New Hampshire venue canceled a screening of my documentary, citing safety concerns, local volunteers built a theater overnight.

Ruth Leitman

President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump, left, watch the pregame show before Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 9, 2025.

In a Year of Violent Tumult, the Sports World Was Silent In a Year of Violent Tumult, the Sports World Was Silent

When the country needed them to speak out, most athletes kept mum—and a few openly embraced embraced Trumpism.

Dave Zirin

Stephen Miller’s Monstrous Tentacles

Stephen Miller’s Monstrous Tentacles Stephen Miller’s Monstrous Tentacles

The driving force behind Trump’s illegal immigration actions.

OppArt / Matt Mahurin