Black elephants? My friend Professor Paul Cornish puts it succinctly, “The real threat to NATO and its cohesion are Black Elephants; risks that are widely acknowledged and familiar (the ‘elephant in the room’) - but ignored. When the elephant can no longer be ignored it is passed off as an unpredictable surprise (a ‘black swan’) by those who were slow to address it. NATO’s biggest Black Elephant is the reluctance of its member countries to spend on defence.”
Embedded herein is the link to my video contribution to an event organised by Rome's Aspen Italia and the Istituto Affari Internazionale on October 8th entitled The Future of NATO.
I do not pull my punches!
Julian Lindley-French
