Picture it. You're at an awesome party making the rounds and someone starts asking you what you know about NATO.

Hey, so what do you know about NATO?

And maybe you know a lot. But maybe you don't. Maybe you've seen it in the news a bit.

Maybe you've heard an argument over who pays for it. Maybe you have it confused with NAFTA.

Okay, let's be honest, this doesn't usually come up at parties. But let's pretend

that it did. In this episode, my friend and I are going to have a drink, listen to some experts,

and try to figure out what NATO is. I'm Gabriel Sierra and this is why it matters.

Today, what do you know about NATO.

If you drive today from Washington where we are up to Toronto or Quebec, you'll have to stop at the Canadian border.

You'll show a passport, but you won't see any tanks.

The US-Canadian border is largely undefended.

My name is Charles Kupchen.

I'm a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a professor at Georgetown University.

If you drive today from France to Germany, you may see a few sheep,

but you won't see a border guard, you won't change money,

and you will see no tanks and soldiers.

That border is undefended.

That border is the site of untold bloodshed.

It's today undefended because NATO and the European Union and processes of integration have made

those borders geopolitically inconsequential.

Huh, you know what? I've never actually thought about it that way.

You know how last summer I was on that train from Paris to Berlin? I didn't even know when I left France and entered Germany.

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