NATO Engages Conference | Washington 2019

Nik Gowing was invited to play a leading role in the official NATO outreach programme, NATO Engages. The event brought together senior policymakers, military leaders, technology innovators, journalists and academics to explore how the Alliance must adapt to a rapidly changing global security environment.

The event focused on “Innovating the Alliance” and examined how emerging technologies, shifting power dynamics and hybrid threats are reshaping collective security.

Nik played a central moderating role. Working alongside co-moderators from international media, he guided conversations that connected high-level geopolitical analysis with operational and societal implications. Nik’s co-moderator for the seven hours of exchanges was Ines Pohl, Editor-In-Chief, Deutsche Welle.

What we achieved

Through structured challenge, Thinking the Unthinkable’s framework helped shift the tone from formal presentation to active interrogation of assumptions. Discussions explored not only what NATO must do to respond to emerging threats, but how decision-making, communication and alliance cohesion must evolve in an environment defined by uncertainty and speed.

A key focus of the session design was to surface the “unthinkables” facing the Alliance, from the accelerating pace of technological change to the fragility of public trust and the complexity of hybrid threats operating below traditional thresholds of conflict.

The role of Thinking the Unthinkable was to create intellectual friction in a constructive setting. Connecting strategic-level risks with the practical realities facing policymakers.

This edition of NATO Engages demonstrated the importance of convening diverse voices in real time, and challenging conventional framing of security debates. It reinforced the need for adaptive thinking in institutions designed for stability, at a time when volatility has become the defining condition.

In Nik’s words “We managed to create dialogue, engagement and a spontaneous ventilation of ideas which is so often lacking in this kind of gathering. Contributors at every level felt motivated to offer views on what NATO must do to prepare for new unthinkables.”