It's the Brian Laird Show on W1YC. Welcome back. I'm David First,

W1YC's weekend edition host, filling in for Brian today.

Yesterday was the last day of the NATO summit in Washington celebrating the 75th anniversary of the

North Atlantic Alliance. NATO was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada,

several Western European nations, to provide collective security against the

former Soviet Union, now Russia of course.

But the anniversary took place at a moment of a lot of uncertainty in the West. This year will have the most

elections ever conducted globally and already many countries have seen a rise in

populist far-right leadership in the European parliamentary elections as one example

Europeans voted in more right-wing politicians in Germany, France, the Netherlands,

Spain and Italy among others Here in the US, the candidates

in the presidential election in November have very different views on what the future of

US involvement in NATO should look like and after President Joe Biden's

performance in his debate against Donald Trump a little over two weeks ago

which has led some in his party to call for him to drop out of the presidential race.

There was a lot of attention given to a press conference that the president gave last night

at the end of the summit.

Joining us now to recap the three-day summit including a breakdown of the press conference last night and what the

2024 U.S election might mean for the future of the Alliance is Fred Kaplan, Slates War Stories, columnists, and the author of many books including

The Bomb, Presidents, Generals, and The Secret History of Nuclear War.

Fred, welcome back to W1YC and we will open the phones to you right away

did you watch President Biden's press conference at NATO's closing yesterday.

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